She stands behind the notion that socially just design can empower marginalized communities and works to convey this message to her students and the university community. Her research interests include religious ritual in contemporary art and how art history intersects with fat studies, an emerging interdisciplinary field that takes body size as the primary focus in how societies define, construct, and represent bodies and identities. Her forthcoming article is entitled "Occupying Space: Making Room for Fatness in Art and Design Studies."