About
Living in Vermont.* On island time.
I get through the bleak and biting Vermont winters by doing two things: 1) regularly applying pani, the fragrant hand-made coconut oil from the Marquesas; and 2) making a point of getting outside to enjoy the snow and ice. The pani’s sandalwood and Tahitian gardenia perfume transports me to my other home. The trees, fresh air and exercise nourish my body and soul. It’s a dynamic combo.
I also thrive on diversified work. My background is in anthropology: I have a BA in Anthropology and Archaeology from Harvard University, an MA in the Social Sciences from the University of Chicago, and a PhD in Anthropology from McGill University. But between degrees I have worked as an archaeologist, a landscape historian, and a museum curatorial assistant. I was adjunct faculty at the University of Vermont and Saint Michael’s College when I found my way into ghostwriting, in 2018. I feel so lucky that I have been able to continue publishing my research on the Marquesas while also writing, both for myself and for others. Since then I have worked with the Aspen Institute, Johns Hopkins University, and the social sciences think tank, Populace.
*The State of Vermont currently occupies the unceded lands of the Abenaki, or the People of the Dawnland. These ancestral territories were transformed by the displacement and devastation of their original inhabitants, and today’s Western Abenaki communities are their traditional stewards.
My working life has two sides…
As a ghostwriter, researcher and copy editor I collaboratively draft book proposals and full-length books for others on American culture, economics, social psychology, and various social science topics. I have worked on book projects exploring the impact of transparency on the modern workplace; the burgeoning field of neuroaesthetics; data science; the sharing economy; aptitude testing; emotional intelligence; and the power of collective illusions. I have also developmental copy edited several books, including two on archaeology, and copy edited data reports on social issues.
As an anthropologist I have been examining and writing about the relationship between people, culture and their environment for decades. Since 2001 I have specialized in the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia, though my professional work in archaeology and landscape history was focused elsewhere. I have published on a variety of topics such as: land use and sovereignty; indigenous fear and connections to the land; Marquesan language; tapa (traditional bark cloth); cultural appropriation; breadfruit; critical and living heritage; indigenous resource use; and sustainability.
And then there’s the stuff in the middle…
(Because nothing is ever perfectly binary!)
I am the author of two books…with a third on the way!
