About Me
My upbringing spent between rural southern Virginia and Bavaria gave me a unique perspective on history, culture, and social dynamics. I spent half of my time living with my grandmother in the Appalachian backwoods surrounded by relics of the Civil War on the famed Plank Road. The other half was spent traveling with my father across Europe to visit old seats of power. This inserted a deep interest in power structures and social norms.
As a non-traditional student, I have the clarity of intention as I pursue my academic path. I know what I want to study, I’m proactive in my pursuits, and I am equally unafraid to be changed by it.
Big Ideas
My research is grounded in a single conviction: that form is never neutral. Whether in a letterform, a pedagogical method, or a curated image, the structures we inhabit either open or foreclose our capacity to imagine otherwise.
My work asks how visual and material culture participates in the reproduction of dominant structures, and more importantly, how it has been used to interrupt them. At the center of this is a belief that meaning, identity, and resistance emerge from the relational.
Art & Design History
My work stems primarily in the Modern Period, primarily in early twentieth century avant-garde movements. I also have a deep appreciation for Early Medieval Art, particularly in Illuminated Manuscripts, as well as the High Middle Ages.
Critical Theory
The structure of my theoretical frameworks are expansions built mostly from Foucault, Bourdieu, and Heidegger.
Archives & Rare Books
My research treats curatorial and archival work as praxis. Critical theory is not just applied to material, but produced through active engagement with it.
The foundations of this work build to my larger inquiry of epistemology and ontology, and how Art & Design History functions as a site of resistance, social literacy, and cultural influence. Here, I draw on Arturo Escobar, Husserl, and Paolo Freire.
Objectives
Academic
Mellon Research Fellow
Summer of 2026
VCU Undergraduate Research & Creative Scholarship
2025-2026
Summer 2026
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Summer 2026
Archives & Special Collections
Virginia Commonwealth University
Undergraduate