After completing an M.A. at the University at Buffalo, NY, with a research focus on critical museology and feminist studies applied to the National Museum of Ireland, I began my PhD with UBC’s Anthropology department. My current research is situated in the UNESCO World Heritage designated rice terraces of the Philippines, where I consider the impacts of tourism on the people living and working upon these terraced landscapes.

My current research considers forms of ‘authenticity policing’ with which cultural heritage institutions engage, particularly in governmental sectors concerned with tourism, and the localized actions materializing these discourses in heritage-tourism. I believe that it is necessary to challenge the essentializing rhetoric embedded in the etic search for ‘authenticity’ in Indigenous groups’ cultural heritage.