Before joining the staff in the College of Arts & Letters in August of 2012, I was Director of the Mississippi Digital Library (MDL) and Curator of Manuscripts, Archives, and Digital Collections with The University of Southern Mississippi Libraries. As part of that work, I helped to establish the MDL and USM's digital library program. I have a strong interest in interdisciplinary projects, particularly those that integrate digital tools/resources into the teaching and practice of the arts and humanities. I have a background in photography, with a bachelor’s degree in American studies and master’s degrees in both anthropology and library and information science. My professional activity in the past has related to documenting communities, preservation of cultural heritage materials, the relationship of imagery to the perception of southern culture, grant-writing, body marking, making puppets, and photography as a research method.