Aubrey is a visual artist, collaborative anthropologist, educator, storyteller, and memory worker with heartstrings tied to New Orleans and presently running wild in Wyoming. Her socially engaged practice spans the academic, creative, applied, and public spheres, exploring intersections of culture, history, and community.
Her current projects highlight her love for collaboration and storytelling. In Kemmerer, Wyoming, she is working with multigenerational mine workers to develop an interactive ethnographic website preserving the town’s union mining heritage as it transitions from coal to nuclear power. Additionally, as a member of Monument Lab’s Re:Generation 2024 cohort, her team has developed High Iron, a traveling public art installation within a modified train car. This multi-year project will journey westward from Laramie, Wyoming, illuminating the stories of ancestors who built the transcontinental railroad and highlighting themes of immigrant contributions, cultures of care, and diverse histories. Lastly, she is a core team member and community liaison with the statewide Mellon-funded story gathering project Re-Storying the West.
She is the founder and executive director of Alces Community Works, a public anthropology and public art non-profit 501c3 organization that works with all kinds of folks in Wyoming to preserve and share multimedia stories of culture and place.
Her editorial and commercial photography client list includes clients such as: BBC, Comedy Central, Esquire, Fender Guitars, The Grammys, HBO, Magnolia Pictures, Nike, Playboy, Red Bull, The United Nations, Time, Volcom, and various magazines and record labels. Notable collaborators include Spike Lee, Rebecca Solnit, and the Smithsonian Institution. Aubrey’s work has earned numerous grants and residencies and has been exhibited nationally and internationally.
Trained as a photographer, cultural anthropologist, and historical archaeologist, Aubrey holds an Associate of Applied Science in Photography (ACC), a Bachelor of Journalism (UT), a Master of Science in Urban Studies (UNO), and a Master of Art in Anthropology and Environment and Natural Resources, with a graduate certificate in Geographic Information Systems and Technology (UWYO). Currently, she is a qualitative research assistant and PhD student in Public Humanities at the University of Wyoming.
As an educator, Aubrey has taught anthropology and visual culture at Laramie County Community College, the Pathways from Prison Program, and the University of Wyoming, where she continues to teach. Her research interests include landscapes and material culture of resistance, the archaeology of capitalism and wage work, collectivism and socialism during westward expansion, and memory-keeping practices on landscapes of labor, organizing, and violence.
For over 20 years, Aubrey has been dedicated to youth advocacy and arts-based programming, helping young people develop leadership skills grounded in social justice and making meaningful change.
You can find her scanning the sky for migratory birds, scanning the ground for archaeological objects, and watching reruns of Law and Order SVU.
