In 2015 I participated in a course on object-based research methods using museum collections. Over the course of several months I conducted a research project on Hupa, Yurok, and Karuk basketry hats from the Klamath River area in Northern California. This project included practicing "close-looking" techniques, developing a research question, identifying primary and secondary source research materials, digitizing the small collection, and presenting my results to the public and to the museum staff in the form of an academic lecture at a research symposium.

​

As a part of my  master's thesis project  I wrote and was awarded a Museum Student Research Award to study the basketry collections of four other museums in California (Oakland Museum of California, California Academy of Sciences, the Hoopa Valley Tribal Museum, and the Clarke Museum). I used this research to look at more basketry hats all over California, as well as some raw basketry materials. This work and the conversations I had with community members enhanced this ongoing research. I presented this work again at the Handweaver's Guild of Boulder meeting in the fall of 2016.