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Research

I have experienced the power of healing through art. Not a physical or medical cure, but rather a powerful emotional transformation that allowed me to change my perspective on living in a queer-disabled body. This new perspective allows me to now use my position as an artist, activist, and researcher to bring attention to the many issues facing my community.

Living most of my life as a professional patient, social practice and installation pieces work as interventions to disrupt the status quo and promote individual, community-level, and political healing by promoting awareness of the many issues faced by others like me. I recognize the power of coming together with community members to collectively participate in creative outpourings intended to catch the attention of broad audiences. Through performance, installation, and social practice, I utilize an interdisciplinary approach, incorporating sculpture, photography, design, glass, painting, and other collaborative techniques, transforming them into candid and documentary video, collage, assemblage, and site-specific installations to push back against hegemonic cis-heteropatriarchy, ableism, and living in a medicalized and often desexualized body.


As I transition into my role as a doctoral student in Medical Anthropology, I will continue to research the positive effects of engagement with the arts on the queer-disabled community and how the utilization of social practice art as a site of resistance promotes healing. I aim to center my graduate research around creating spaces where queer-disabled individuals can show up as their whole selves to engage in collective art practices, continually seeking to effect positive change through art.

Healing Through Art: An Examination of the Intersection of the Queer and Disabled Communities

Undergraduate Honors Thesis 2021

Queer & Disabled: Healing Through Art

Short Art Film

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