I received my Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from Brandeis University in 2009. My research was in Oaxaca, Mexico, where I was interested in a growing urban middle class—more specifically in the intersection of gendered ideals and ideas about work. In Oaxaca, I focused on the ways in which female teachers negotiated their personal identities as professional women with idealized notions of motherhood in both Oaxaca and Mexico. Since my research in Oaxaca, I have shifted my interests more locally—particularly to the lives and experiences of refugees in NH. I was Project Manager for the film Uprooted: Heartache and Hope in NH (2010), produced by the Center for Humanities at UNH, and since then, I have been a Humanities-to-go Presenter for NH Humanities Council, acting as discussant and facilitator for the film. In addition, I was the Humanities Expert for the World Council of NH’s film, Refugees of Shangri-La, about Bhutanese refugees in NH and the US (2013-2014). My next research project is a follow up film to Uprooted, as I continue to work to share the stories of NH’s refugees. I teach a variety of classes including: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality, Peoples and Cultures of Latin America, Medical Anthropology, and Applied Anthropology. I am constantly honing my teaching practices, which focus on open pedagogy and engaged learning strategies, and am excited to be a University of New Hampshire Open Educational Resource (OER) Ambassador for 2016-2017.
