Brown University

Faculty Member, American Studies

Visiting Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies and American Studies

About

I grew up in the hills of upstate New York where I engaged in gardening with my father and attended intertribal pow-wows with my mother. I received my bachelor’s degree with a focus in Anthropology and Psychology, at Williams College in Williamstown MA in 2001.  I received a MA in Anthropology and Museum studies, with a focus on Native American living history museums, from Brown University in 2003.  In May 2010, I completed my PhD in Anthropology, also at Brown University.  My dissertation , “Local Food Production and Community Illness Narratives: Responses to Environmental Contamination and Health Studies in the Mohawk Community of Akwesasne,”  explores the environmental, cultural, political and economic factors that have lead to changes over the past generation in health and local food production in the Mohawk community of Akwesasne. This project examines community based participatory health research conducted between the community and a local university to determine the impact of environmental contamination on community health, as well as recent subsistence revival movements aiming to encourage Mohawks to return to a more traditional healthy diet.  I was recently hired as an Assistant Professor of American Studies and Ethnic Studies, with a focus in American Indian Studies, at Brown University. My research interests include environmental health and subsistence revival movements in Native American communities.

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