PhD in American Studies, State University of New York at Buffalo, 2007
M.A. in American Studies, State University of New York at Buffalo, 2000
Areas of Specialty
Research Interests: ethnopoetics, oral history & public history, collective memory and traditional folk arts; visual anthropology/documentary film & media; indigenous and transnational studies; social and environmental justice issues related to food, culture and the commons.
Leads Food and Culture of the Aegean, International Study Abroad program in Greece and Turkey.
Folk Arts programs for Explore and More Children’s Museum in Buffalo.
Committee member, New York State Folklore Society’s 2017 “Cultural Migration: Displacement and
Renewal” Symposium & 2018 Annual American Folklore Conference.
Courses Taught
ANT 201 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
ANT 301 Contemporary Native American Issues
ANT 303 Native Women
ANT 304 Native Image in Film and Media
ANT 316 Food and Culture
ANT 462 Museum Studies Internship
ANT 401 Biography and Life History
Research Interests
Dissertation and Current Research Projects
Awarded a PhD. in 2007 from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Thesis Advisor: Dennis Tedlock, indigenous scholar and translator of Popol Vuh: The Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life
My Doctoral Thesis, titled “Interweaving: Memory Through Machines,” argues stone carving, weaving and music were forms of non-alphabetic writing systems used to transmit cultural memories and histories in ancient indigenous cultures of the Americas and the Mediterranean. The second part of my dissertation is based on ethnographic fieldwork and research into contemporary memories of these traditional arts and the use of modern media like video to document the contemporary oral histories of stone carvers, textile artists and musicians in western New York State.
I am currently working on publication of a book based on the transnational migration stories of Italian American stone carvers from the Abruzzo region of Italy. I am also involved in documentary video projects involving ecology, social justice and commons-based solutions related to food and culture.
Book chapters in edited volumes:
“Becoming Storied.” In On Second Thought: Women Scholars’ Internal Dialogs, edited by Luisa Del Giudice (2017).
“Stitches in Air: Needlework as Spirituality and Service in Western New York” in edited volume, Embroidered Stories: Women’s Needlework from the Italian Diaspora, University of Mississippi Press Folklore Series, Fall, 2015.
“Stitches in Air: Needlework as Spiritual Practice and Service in Batavia, New York.” In Embroidered Stories: Interpreting Women’s Domestic Needlework in the Italian Diaspora, edited by Joseph Sciorra and Edvige Giunta, pp.74-98. Jackson:University of Mississippi Press Folklore Series (2014).
“Play me a Tarantella, a Polka or Jazz: Italian Americans and the Currency of the Piano Accordion.” In The Accordion in the Americas, edited by Helena Simonett, Champaign-Urbana: University of Illinois Press (2012).
“Cantastorie: Ethnography as Story singing.” In Oral History, Oral Culture, and Italian Americans, edited by Luisa Del Giudice, pp. 83-101.New York: Palgrave Press (2009).
“The Relevance of a Commons in Greece, Italy and the United States Democracy, Social Justice and Ecology,” In Per la democrazia l’integrazionesociale (On Democracy and Social Integration), edited by Mario Aldo Toscano, pp. 175- 189. Florence, Italy: Le Lettre Press (2010).
“The Maintenance of a Commons.” In Uncertainty and Insecurity in the New Age: Studies in Italian Americana, edited by Vince Parrillo, pp.199-219. New York: John D. Calandra Italian American Institute: Queens College, The City University of New York Press (2009).
Article about Pedagogy, New Media and Oral History Use in Classroom
“The Medium and the Message: Oral History, New Media, and a Grassroots History of Working Women.” Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 37 No. 3 (2008-2009): 305-318.
