About Me

Curious about the “Shreds and Patches” name? This post explains it.

I am an ethnographer and ethnologist whose work bridges the fields of folklore, cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology and American Studies. I have collaborated with Native American communities in Oklahoma since 1993, when I began a lifelong personal and research relationship with the Euchee/Yuchi people. My studies concern, most centrally, the nature of customary arts, practices and beliefs and the role that these play in social life. In addition to the ethnography and ethnology of Eastern North America, I also pursue projects exploring emerging issues (often quite contested) in the areas of intellectual property, cultural property and heritage policy. Lastly, most of my career has been spent working as a curator in museum contexts and I remain deeply engaged with research in, and teaching about, museums, especially museums of art and ethnography. [more]

With the start of 2013, I assumed the role of Director of the Mathers Museum of World Cultures at Indiana University, where I also serve as an Associate Professor of Folklore and American Studies. I am also the editor of Museum Anthropology Review, a gold open access journal that colleagues and I founded in early 2007. In addition to my primary appointment in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology and my current term appointment in the Department of American Studies, I am also an Adjunct Associate Professor of Anthropology and an affiliated faculty member in the Cultural Studies Program, also at Indiana University. Thus I am available to work with students in any of these fields. [more]