She earned her PhD at SUNY at Stony Brook in 2007. Her research is focused on the Southern Cone of South America. Her publications include The Grandchildren of Solano López: Frontier and Nation in Paraguay, 1904–1936 (University of New Mexico Press, 2013), “Composing Gender and Class: Paraguayan Letter Writers during the Chaco, 1932–1935” in the Journal of Women's History, and various book chapters for Spanish-language publications.