Born and raised in Idaho, she is interested in how people enact popular ideas about the West in their everyday lives. She is currently working on the Gay Rodeo Oral History Project, gathering vital information about how gay men and women have built a vibrant community and experienced rodeo over the past forty years. Her other work includes country-western icons like Dolly Parton and mechanical bull riding. Her current book project analyzes various forms of rodeo, including gay rodeo and prison rodeo, in order to scrutinize narratives of authenticity in the popular performance of the American West. This project is tentatively titled, “Riding Bareback: Marginalized Rodeo Communities and the Performance of the 20thCentury American West.”