I am a cultural anthropologist who uses archival and ethnographic methods to write alternative histories that emphasize the role of women and other marginalized actors in U.S. and Latin American relations.
My first book, Framing a Lost City: Science, Photography and the Making of Machu Picchu (University of Texas Press, 2017), uses extensive archival research to argue that the use of photography on the three Yale Peruvian scientific expeditions was foundational to making Machu Picchu into national patrimony and a scientific discovery. Subsequently translated, Inventando una Ciudad Perdida: Ciencia, Fotografía y la Leyenda de Machu Picchu, was released in 2021 by the exceptional press, Instituto de Estudios Peruanos in Lima, Peru. My most recent book, The Taste of Nostalgia: Women, Race, and Culinary Longing in Peru (University of Texas Press, 2024), examines the role of women, domestic labor, and Cold War ideals in shaping taste and modernity in Lima both during the 1950s and today.
I love exploring ideas through writing and have published articles, reviews and white papers on a diverse range of topics including masculinity, flavor, the blender, national heritage, lantern slides, and neo-monasticism. A link to my substack page can be found below.
I currently am Associate Dean at Bard College for the Bard Prison Initiative where I work with exceptional teacher-scholars to bring the liberal arts of Bard College to people who are incarcerated in New York state. I teach courses on food, women, writing, faraway places, photography and objectivity.