I am a geographer by training. Prior to moving to the UK, I worked as a land claims analyst and as a research and policy manager in Aboriginal Affairs in the Canadian Federal Government. In 2011, I completed my PhD in Geography at the Open University with a thesis titled ‘Modernizing the Ancient: Brecciation, Materiality and Memory in Rome’. The PhD examined how the modern gets done in a city with so much past, and how the past in the underground shapes the city’s present. In 2015-16, I was a research associate on the AHRC-funded project ‘Spirited Stoke: Spiritualism in the Everyday Life of Stoke-on-Trent’ and a co-investigator on the AHRC developmental award ‘Re-configuring Ruins: Materialities, Processes and Mediations’. My research interests revolve around urban cultures, materiality and the built environment, memory, spirituality, and how legacies are selected and transmitted to future generations.

University of Exeter