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.
She is the founder and executive director of Alces Community Works, a non-profit public art and history design studio that works with all kinds of folks in Wyoming to preserve and share multimedia stories of culture and place.
As a member of Monument Lab’s Re:Generation 2024 cohort, her team—including Conor Mullen and Laura McDermit— developed and continues to steward High Iron, a traveling public art/memory and community activation project housed within a modified train car. As the only monument in the state to the laborers who built the Transcontinental Railroad, this multi-year project will journey westward from Laramie, illuminating the stories of ancestors who built our communities, highlighting themes of immigrant contributions, cultures of care, and diverse histories. Continuing statewide humanities work, she is a core team member and community liaison with the statewide Mellon-funded story gathering project Re-Storying the West.
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 researcher and PhD student in Public Humanities at the University of Wyoming. Her research interests include landscapes and material culture of resistance, the archaeology of capitalism and wage work, collectivism and socialism during westward expansion, Greek labor immigration in the late 1800’s, and memory-keeping practices on landscapes of labor, organizing, and violence.
A lifelong educator, Aubrey teaches anthropology and visual arts/culture at Laramie County Community College, the Pathways from Prison Program, and within multiple departments at the University of Wyoming. For over 20 years, Aubrey has been dedicated to youth advocacy and arts-based programming, supporting high schoolers as they develop leadership skills grounded in social justice and transformational 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.