Academic Works

Once ubiquitous in America, the ashtray was essential in the built environment, shaping human behavior from airplanes to classrooms. And yet, the ashtray itself has rarely been researched, overarched by studies focusing on adjacent concepts related to health, environmental, and waste archaeologies. By witnessing ashtrays as co-constitutive to human experience via actor-network theory, this ongoing qualitative study considers how objects become moralized amidst shifting semiotic dialogues. We utilize object biographies, site-specific observation, and interviews to consider the disgust, reverie, and ‘lived’ roles of ashtrays over time. What narratives can these tiny trash cans teach us about nostalgia and embarrassment, social signaling, and the increasing rate of obsolescence in the 21^st century? Harnessing the eclecticism of material culture studies, this project seeks to inspire critical engagement with cultural forgetting, confrontations of waste, and the inescapable entanglements we have with objects that become held to changing moral standards. 2025 - ongoing. Presented at the American Anthropological Association, 2026.

Ossmol: Ethnography of a Dying Language in Sweden
Spoken in rural Sweden, Ossmol or Orsamål has been in significant decline since the post WWII era as Sweden has increased cultural homogeneity. This work centered on ethnographic interviews with native speakers, learning about their mixed language experiences, the role of language in identity and community formation, craft, and the social experiences and community intiatives of Ossmol speakers. Ethnographic interviews conducted in Swedish by L. Darling, with creative, participatory, and artistic methods used for Ossmol language acquisition. 2013-2016. Various excerpts published in Orsahembygdsgården Tidskrift, lectures at Gustavus Adolphus College and Wahlström Nordic Retreat.

Miscellaneous Ongoing Studies
Third & supporting author in ongoing research projects on home sewing movement,

aesthetics, and more in 20th Century American garment design.

Resident Folk Artist at University of Wisconsin - Madison, 2026. 

Workshops and facillitation of academic research into craft and community with over 60 participants in small-group formats.

Wahlstöm Nordic Retreat, 2024.
Sponsored by Center for Upper Midwest Culture, Gustavus Adolphus, UW Madison, St. Olaf, Mankato State, Augustana, and U of M.
Interactive workshop, folk arts lecture, and folkloric interview for 80 participants.

Gustavus Adolphus College, 2019.
Sponsored by the Scandinavian Studies Department
Interactive workshop and pedagogical discussion of folk schools.

Education