I am a PhD candidate and Gates Cambridge Scholar in the Cambridge Heritage Research Centre, Department of Archaeology.  My research interrogates the difficult cultural heritage of colonial and military oppression in post-junta Myanmar. The PhD inquiry builds on my Cambridge MPhil dissertation on the use of strategic ambiguity in museum interpretation to manipulate political outcomes. Believing in general that engagement is more effective than embargo for achieving positive change, I worked in Myanmar between 2001 and 2010 when the country was under military rule and international political and economic sanctions. Working for the American Museum of Natural history in collaboration with the United Nations Office of the Secretary-General, I consulted on the protection of cultural and natural heritage and the promotion of civilian diplomacy through educational tourism amid international isolation.

Nearly two decades of senior-level museum experience - at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. and the American Museum of Natural History in New York City - and museum-related travel to 100+ countries, inform my work at Cambridge and my fieldwork in Myanmar.

Previous academic experience includes an M.Phil. from the University of Cambridge, an M.Sc. from Columbia University, and a BA from the University of Michigan.