So many questions!
I am endlessly curious about the world and everything and everyone in it. I earned a PhD in Higher Education in 2023 from the University of Denver and use interdisciplinary approaches with qualitative and arts-based research methods to tackle complicated interdisciplinary problems.
Please explore below to learn more about my unique approaches and interests— and reach out if you want to collaborate!
Previous Research
I create unique custom research designs that uncover differences and provide depth of understanding in ways that traditional quantitative and qualitative approaches cannot. I have experience with traditional qualitative & quantitative methods as well, but I use all the tools in the research tool box, not just one.
I LOVE theory! I use interdisciplinary, new materialist, organizational, and historical lenses to generate unique conceptual methodologies for research that are creative, culturally responsive, neurodivergent, and inclusive. The outcomes shift our perspectives, disrupt assumptions, and build empathy to make long lasting change.
Arts-based research (ABR) methods, also called Creative Inquiry, use creativity as a way of coming to know (epistemology). I use drawing, oil painting, photography, and poetic writing in my own arts-based research.
Orientalism in American Visual Culture (2007 Masters Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee). I applied Said's Orientalism lens to American history after 9/11. The image is the show postcard (digital).
"Harem Holiday and Exotic Romances" Digital media & photography, Photoshop (36” x 24” 2007). From my Master's series using Orientalism to examine American visual cultural perceptions of the Middle East.
Paper collage study of modern images of technology in the US 1880-1930. Study conducted during PhD dissertation on the culture of engineering education.
"Fires & Floods in the West" (2021) Oil on Canvas 12x16". An arts-based research project for an Ethics across the Curriculum conference, I explored my own water use with photo explorations around Cherry Creek and images from news stories of wildfires.
Cherry Creek at Castlewood Canyon State Park, Colorado. 2021 Another oil painting that explored my watershed and water use. (15x30")
My interpretation of Thomas Nail's Contemporary Loop Object Theory, which was a core component of my dissertation conceptual framework. (Oil on canvas,
"Karen Barad's lightning in Van Gogh's Field" 2020 (8x10" oil on canvas). An arts-based exploration of theory while writing my dissertation research proposal.
Creative Materialism visual model 2020 (16x20" oil on canvas). An oil exploration of the visual model of my conceptual framework.
Current Research
-
CM is my unique research methodology I theorized for my PhD research, which combines arts-based research, culturally responsive methodologies, and new materialist theory. CM provides a unique process for gathering subjective, in-depth content from participants that does not replace quantitative or other qualitative methods, but adds another tool to the toolbox for understanding.
Creative materialism is a "kinesthetic-onto-epistemological" framework that is participatory, shares power between the participants and researchers, and is emergent and intra-active (Barad, 2007). It is a subjective methodology that adds depth and nuance to any study in which individual voices and experiences are to be elevated and shared. It is ideal for uncovering what is hidden and invisible.
-
Emerging from my unique doctoral research methodology of creative materialism, I once again am combining my studio practices with research and writing to better understand my own neurodivergence.
-
I started a new long-term interdisciplinary research project in 2025 that examines “creativity”. I am bringing together research fields including business, psychology, brain sciences, the arts, and neurodiversity.
-
I have known I had trouble with numbers since childhood and developed a math phobia along the way; however, teaching at a STEM university helped me overcome the phobia and has made me interested in exploring the minds of those who think in numbers as I think visually.