Professor. Curator. Public Scholar.
Claudia Zeiske and I collaborated to create a walk and video for the autumn equinox. It’s part of Kel Portman’s equinox project for September 2025.
We walked in the spirit of balance and connection, spanning two continents and marking the moments when day and night meet.
Watch it here.
In a new article in Public Humanities, I offer a model for making exhibits that a novice can apply in a variety of contexts. The essay draws on examples and lessons from several collaborative exhibit projects I’ve worked on with an array of amazing partners.
Read “How to Create Exhibits” here. It’s open access!
I am honored to be an Indiana University Presidential Arts and Humanities Fellow for the 2025-2026 academic year. Through this fellowship, I’ll be developing a new project about the intertwined relationships among walking, vision, and sense of place. Learn more here.
Liz Kryder-Reid, Audrey Ricke, and I have received the 2025 Open Education Award from IU Indianapolis for developing the open educational resource Teaching Toxic Heritage. It’s filled with activities that can be used in formal or informal learning environments. Teaching Toxic Heritage is a companion to Toxic Heritage: Legacies, Futures, and Environmental Injustice (Kryder-Reid and May, eds., Routledge, 2024), which is also published open access!
This spring, I taught a stellar trio of undergraduate art history students in an independent study on “writing for exhibits.” In partnership with Newfields and Herron’s Basile Center for Art, Design, and Public Life, they wrote interpretive text for three new immersive installations that other Herron students created for THE LUME. On view until February 2026.
In an essay and graphic now published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, I issue a call to look differently at the ways we measure, discuss, and visualize pain in clinical settings.
Read “A New Pain Scale” here. It’s open access.
Building Solidarity through Toxic Heritage
March 27, 2025
National Council on Public History Annual Meeting, Montréal
Laura Holzman (IU Indianapolis), Wilmarie Medina-Cortes (Humanities Action Lab), Liz Kryder- Reid (IU Indianapolis)
Pollution and advocacy for environmental justice have shaped where, how, and with whom we live. Building solidarity among stakeholders with different experiences of environmental harm and resilience might be our best bet for imagining and creating a healthier, sustainable, and more just future. How can public history contribute to this important work?
This session will spark conversation and inspire action by highlighting three projects that work locally, translocally, and/or internationally to build solidarity through toxic heritage. Together, we’ll examine collaborative practices and the potential of exhibitions, open-access publishing, and digital archives.
See the Indy Toxic Heritage exhibit:
January 25–March 29, 2025
Holliday Park Nature Center
6363 Spring Mill Road
April – May, 2025
Garfield Park Arts Center
2432 Conservatory Drive
See the Indy Toxic Heritage exhibit:
August 6–17, 2024
Pride Park Family Center
1229 S. Vandeman Street
August 21–22, 2024
Indiana Water Summit (registration required)
September 17–28, 2024
Riverside Park Family Center
2420 E. Riverside Drive
After more than a year of planning, community conversations, and collaborative work, Indy Toxic Heritage: Pollution, Place, and Power is opening!
Broad Ripple Park Family Center
1426 Broad Ripple Ave., Indianapolis
June 21-July 13, 2024
We’ll celebrate the show with an opening reception Friday, June 21, 5-7pm.
The exhibit will travel to additional Indy Parks locations in the coming months.