Marissa Friedman is the Project Imaging Technician and Cataloger for the collaborative state-funded grant project Teaching California at the California Historical Society in San Francisco, CA. She graduated from the University of California, Riverside, in 2017 with a M.A. in History (Public History). Her research interests include digital archives, grassroots community archives and engagement with collections, and the intersections between social justice and public history. In her spare time, she also works with the California Museum of Photography as the curator of the upcoming exhibit on the Keystone View Company’s WWI stereoscopic photograph collection, Bringing the War Home (opening September 29, 2018). She is currently pursuing a Master’s in Library and Information Science from San Jose State University and also working in a public library.

   Meranda Owens (Northern Paiute/Mexican American) is a post-doc at the Field Museum working on the renovations of the Native American Hall. She recently earned her PhD in Native American Studies from the University of California, Riverside. Her research has focused on examining how Native American women from several tribal communities in California and Nevada use ancestral forms of basketry to maintain their tribal histories, languages, and cultures. Her dissertation, Resiliency of Native American Women Basket Weavers: California and Nevada, is already under consideration for a book contract.

  We are very proud of Dr. Owens, and look forward to seeing what she will accomplish. Find her here, and watch for the Fields’ interview for more about her work.