Before arriving at Cornell, I had the wonderful opportunity to work for three years on the development of the inaugural exhibition at the National Museum of the American Indian (the museum opened in Washington, DC on September 21, 2004). I worked with several Native communities in my capacity as Lead Researcher for the NMAI, most extensively in the Arctic and the Caribbean. I continued working on the exhibition after arriving at Cornell, particularly in the Arctic. My current research has developed out of these experiences.

For my dissertation, I am focusing on the Our Lives gallery at the NMAI, which highlights contemporary Native identities in the Western hemisphere. It is a multi-sited ethnography (at the museum and in two of the eight communities featured in Our Lives) that invites Native community members, design professionals and museum professionals to reflect on the process of exhibit development and the concept of Native identity as it has been produced within the context of what is both a creative institution and a large bureaucracy.

I also do a bit of "field" work among the ultimate frisbee populations of North America, Mexico and Europe as well...