About me
I earned my Ph.D. in American History from New York University, where I studied social and cultural histories. My MA explored the life and significance of a Native American woman in Colonial America. My PhD explored the histories of women and childhood by focusing on the Jewish summer camp movement in the 1920’s and 30’s. In addition to teaching Native American History at New York University, Cultural History at Radboud University, and supervising MA theses at the University of Amsterdam, and co-supervising PhD theses at Leiden University’s Roosevelt Institute for American Studies and University College Roosevelt, I am a faculty member at University College Roosevelt, where I teach American, Gender, and Media and Native American Studies from an interdisciplinary perspective. My courses explore a range of topics. They include race, ethnicity, gender, disability, age, Identity, science fiction and popular culture. Current research focuses on trauma and activism by focusing on the Indian Residential Boarding school and Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls within an environmental studies framework.
Academic Awards
- University College Roosevelt, Middelburg, the Netherlands
- Teaching Fellowship
- Dutch Ministry of Education, The Netherlands
- Sirius Research Grant
- New York University, New York, NY
- University Scholarships
- Teaching and Research Fellowships
- Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.
- Pre-Doctoral Research Grant
- Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
- Center for American-Jewish History Research Grant
- Jacob van der Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, OH
- Fellowship in American-Jewish Studies
- Jewish Historical Society of New York, New York, NY
- Malcolm H. Stern Memorial Fellowship
Presentations
- “Stolen Lives: Native American Childhood,” International Conference on Childhood Studies, London, England (March 2023).
- “Stolen Lives: How the Abduction, Rape and Murder of American Indian Women and Children relate to ‘changes in the land,’” Environmental Justice in US History, Roosevelt Institute for American Studies, Leiden University, Middelburg, The Netherlands (October 12, 2022)
- Seminar on Equality, Diversity, and Inclusivity (EDI) in Liberal Arts and Science (LAS), University College Roosevelt, Middelburg (June 27, 2022)
- “Telling Stories: Revisiting ‘American’ History,” 43rd American Indian Workshop Conference, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg (June 2, 2022)
- Commentator: “Real Men Wear Masks: COVID-19 and the Crisis of American Masculinity,” Public Health and Disease in the American Century, Roosevelt Institute for American Studies, Leiden University, (Oct. 2021) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy4F3dOoCPU
- Telling Stories of Daily Life: Revising American History Unhinging the National Framework Expert Group (Amsterdam, Sept. 2021).
- ‘Narrating Lives’: International Conference on Storytelling, (Auto)Biography and (Auto)Ethnography” (London, August 2021).
- “Un/Seen: Native Narratives,” Memory Studies Association Annual Meeting (July 2021).
- Chair: “Indigenous Environmental Justice,” NASA: Superpower by Nature: The Environment and American Studies (Utrecht, May 2021)
- “A Conversation on Community,” with Veronique Schujtens, Utrecht University’s Strengthen Your Education Week Conference (Feb. 2021).
- “Native Narratives,” Poster Presentation, 4th Annual Conference: Unhinging the National Framework (Vrije University; Amsterdam, 2019).
- “Un/Seen Histories: Native Narratives,” Speaking the Past Conference (Middelburg, NL; October 2019).
- “Etty Hillesum,” Third International Etty Hillesum Conference, (Middelburg, NL 2018).
- Marilyn Young Research Grant, Leiden University’s Roosevelt Institute for American Studies, Middelburg, NL (June 2018).
- “Speaking Plainly: A Candid Discussion on Teaching and Learning,” Building Bridges in a Complex World: A Radically Different Kind of Conference, Chania, Crete (July 2017).
- Chair – “Human Rights Education for Strengthening Women’s Rights,” International Conference on Human Rights, (December 2015).
- “Child Care Counts,” presented by Lori Ordover at Women Working for the World, (Bogota, Columbia; 2013).
- “Gender Matters,” Convocation Address, University College Roosevelt, Middelburg, NL (August 2013).
- Presentation, “Mom, I’m Starving…:’ Turning Children into Citizens at Summer Camp” (NY: Jewish Historical Society, 1998).
Recent Publications
- “Un/Seen Histories: Native News,” Speaking the Past: Heritage, Discourse and Publishing in the Digital Age (2021)
- “Summer Camping in the United States,” The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women (2021)
- “Ordinary Lives: Teaching History with Life Narratives in Transnational Perspective,” Unhinging the National Framework: Perspectives on Transnational Life Writing (2020)
Membership in professional organizations
- Memory Studies Association (MSA)
- Netherlands American Studies Association (NASA) – Secretary
- Organization of American Historians (OAH)
- University Colleges Academics Network Netherlands (UCANN) – UCR Representative