BACKSTORY
I have never been especially good at staying in one lane.
My work has wandered through science, education, psychology, research, writing, design, museums, technology, and the occasional project that seemed like a perfectly reasonable idea at the time and became considerably more complicated from there.
The common thread is curiosity: how people learn, how systems work, why some ideas survive while others disappear, and what happens when you look closely at things most people walk past.
I began professionally in science and education and eventually found my way into work spanning classrooms, universities, research, program design, consulting, and educational leadership. Along the way, I have taught everyone from very young children to graduate students and working professionals; designed curricula and programs; worked across languages and cultures; helped organizations solve problems; and translated research into things actual human beings can use.
My academic work has crossed biology, educational psychology, special education, administration, language and culture, and the design of learning environments. I am particularly interested in the places where disciplines overlap—and in the useful things that happen when someone ignores the departmental boundaries long enough to notice a connection.
That tendency has followed me outside traditional academic work.
I photograph things. I write things. I visit museums, archives, historic places, and strange roadside attractions. I collect stories and occasionally objects. I make very small books about very specific things. I am fascinated by material culture: the ordinary artifacts people leave behind and the surprisingly large stories they can contain.
I am also interested in place—especially places in transition. Abandoned infrastructure, changing communities, forgotten technologies, old institutions, landscapes shaped by human decisions: these are all ways of asking essentially the same question.
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
This website is where those interests are allowed to coexist.
Some of what you will find here is serious research. Some is photography or documentary work. Some is commentary. Some is educational. Some is simply the result of noticing something peculiar and deciding to investigate.
There may be a lesson in all of it.
Or there may just be a tiny book.
Either way, I was curious.
As Stanley Milgram said, “The experiment requires that you continue.”