cyberanthropology

Having majored in both anthropology and psychology as an undergraduate, my approach to knowledge is founded upon understanding people from the inside-out as well as the outside-in. That is to say, from the empathic participant-observation of the habitus in question. I'm interested in experiences that subvert the norms and hierarchies that order everyday life, and seek to explore further those imagined (hyper)spaces at the edges of this thing we call reality. More recently I have been pondering, in what ways do we make and perform ourselves in imagined mirror-spaces such as the internet, and how do we experience dissemblage and divinity in liminoid moments such as music festivals and art happenings? How do we take advantage of this new medium to refashion not only ourselves, but our communities, so as to facilitate such states?

current publications in preparation:

• "Deliberate Self-Harm and the Media: A Literature Review," with danah boyd. (2009).

• "The digital graveyard: Frozen performances, encapsulated identities, and commemoration on Facebook," in BJ Fogg and Daniel Berdichevsky (eds.), The Psychology of Facebook. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press (2009).

• "Weaving the undergroung web: Neotribalism and psytrance on Tribe.net," in Graham St. John (ed.), Psytrance: Local Scenes and Global Culture.

master's research:

Master's thesis in Anthropology
Advisor: Elizabeth Traube

The Virtual Campfire: An Ethnography of Online Social Networking explores the increasingly blurred boundaries between human and machine, public and private, voyeurism and exhibitionism, the history of media and our digitized future. Woven throughout are the stories and experiences of those who engage with these sites regularly and ritualistically, the generation of "digital natives" whose tales attest to the often strange and uncomfortable ways online social networking sites have come to be embedded in the everyday lives of American youth.

undergraduate research:

• Online Social Networks as Vehicles for Individual and Collective Remembrance
  Grounding the Past: Monument, Site, and Historical Memory with Phil Wagoner, Fall 2007
• Being, Knowing, and Being Known on the Facebook
  Qualitative Research Methods in Psychology with Rachael Russell, Fall 2006
• The Trance Dance Experience
  Anthropology of Dance with Katja Kolcio Fall 2006
• Bridging the Virtual and the Real: Identity and Community on the Facebook
  Youth Culture with Elizabth Traube, Spring 2006
• Eating Disorder Communities On The Web
  Seminar in Eating Disorders with Ruth Striegel-Moore, Spring 2006