She received her M.A. and Ph.D. from the Annenberg School of Communication, University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests include the role of visual culture in the construction of identity and memory. Her current project, funded by an AAUW fellowship, is a three-year study of girls' interaction with their visual environment. She teaches courses on film theory, visual culture, and the representation of race, class, and gender in visual media. Her book, In Retrospect: The Farm Security Administration Photographs and American Memory, is a study of the circulation and use of the photographs over the past 60 years.