Biography

I developed an interest in archaeology as an undergraduate student at the University of Wisconsin. After I withdrew from my former career as a ballet dancer, my passion to create physical expressions of myself found satisfaction in uncovering the memories of selves expressed in the physical objects they left behind.As an archaeologist, I am interested in the everyday experiences of Bronze Age people in northern Europe. In my career, I plan to explore their personal and community identities, settlements and households, social organizations, engagements with material culture, and ideologies of gender and sexuality.My PhD research examines human conceptualizations of non-human animals through the Bronze Age rock carvings from southern Scandinavia. Some of the broader questions I hope to answer include whether animals were viewed as having agency in the past, how animals fit within the networks of Bronze Age society, how people were perceived as being similar to and different from animals, whether some animals were special kind of beings, and what the implications of my research are for human-animal interactions and relationships in practice in Bronze Age Sweden. Ideally, my project will provide a foundation for further works thinking about society in practice through prehistoric art, and about the roles of animals in prehistory.I am thrilled for the opportunity to share my passion for archaeology with academic and public audiences as a Gates Cambridge Scholar, and to continue my graduate education at the University of Cambridge. I hope to inspire in others an appreciation for the beautiful diversity of humanity throughout the millennia. I am honored to also be a 2013 Beinecke Scholar.

Previous Education

University of Wisconsin Madison
University of Cambridge