Books by Muse
Did you know Muse is a historian and published author?
For over a decade, I have studied and interprted girlhood and young womanhood throughout time and space. I am fascinated by how material culture and historic sites - that is, the evidence people left behind that archaeologists and historians study - can help us understand how girls lived and help advocate for greater gender equality today. My work included curating museum collections, presenting at conferences, and publishing articles and books.
As an independent historian, I continue to research and publish on Medium. I am also working on my first solo-authored book - "Paws in Time" - with plans to publish in 2026 or early 2027.
Exploring American Girlhood
Who are the girls that helped build America?
Conventional history books shed little light on the influence and impact of girls' contributions to society and culture. This oversight is challenged by Girl Museum and their team, who give voices to the most neglected, yet profoundly impactful, historical narratives of American history: young girls.
Exploring American Girls' History through 50 Historic Treasures showcases girls and their experiences through the lens of place and material culture. Discover how the objects and sites that girls left behind tell stories about America that you have never heard before. Readers will journey from the first peoples who called the continent home, to 21st century struggles for civil rights, becoming immersed in stories that show how the local impacts the global and vice versa, as told by the girls who built America. Their stories, dreams, struggles, and triumphs are the centerpiece of the nation's story as never before, helping to define both the struggle and meaning of being "American."
This full-color book is a must-read for those who yearn for more balanced representation in historic narratives, as well as an inspiration to young people, showing them that everyone makes history. It includes color photographs of all the treasured objects explored.
A Girl Can Do
How do scholars research and interpret marginalized populations, especially those that are seldom recognized as marginalized or whose sources are believed to be rare?
Combining intersectional feminism and public history methodologies, 'A Girl Can Do: Recognizing and Representing Girlhood' reflects on how girlhood is found, researched, and interpreted in museums, archives, and historic sites. Defining "girl" as "self-identifying females under the age of 21," 'A Girl Can Do' lays the groundwork for understanding girlhood, its constructs, and its marginalization while providing faculty, students, and working professionals with ten case studies on researching and working with girlhood.
Contributors include archaeologists, archivists, curators, educators, and historians who demonstrate how adding a girl studies lens fosters greater inclusivity and diversity in our work. Whether studying spatial techniques of marginalization in colonial Peru, the daybooks as records of girlhood in late-nineteenth century Sweden, or collaborating with self-identifying fangirls to produce a pop-up exhibition, the contributors demonstrate the variety of sources and methods that can be used to interpret this oft-overlooked population. Throughout, 'A Girl Can Do' petitions for collaborative and creative thinking in how we can reframe and reinterpret our sources - both traditional and overlooked - to shed new light on how girls have contributed to, and provide frames of reference for, human history and culture.