College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Community Sustainability

Advisor: Dr. Lissy Goralnik 

Taylor is PhD student who received her MS from Community Sustainability at MSU. During her MS, she explored nature-connectedness, which describes the innate human desire to relate to non-human life, at Mid-Michigan farmer’s markets. Currently, she studies craft practices rooted reciprocal land relationships in India and the US. She is also a part of an instructional team at The Center for Integrative Studies in MSU’s College of Social Science. Most recently, Taylor taught Placed-Based Storytelling in Inquiry and Design: A Qualitative Methods Course for Designers within JKLU’s Institute of Design in Rajasthan, India.

Materials can tell stories about humans and their environments. Artifacts, such as paper and woodcraft, have the potential to showcase narratives about sustainability, human-nature relationships, and culture through embodied memory (e.g. wear patterns, making processes, or use) and the stories displayed (in writing, painting, etc.). In Rajasthan, Indian handmade paper and kaavad woodcraft (i.e. mini storytelling shrines) are two craft traditions spanning hundreds of years in practice. Complimented by oral teachings, written documentation suggests the crafts are rooted in community practice, storytelling, and deliberate handmade production. By recycling natural waste materials, papermaking and kaavad are well-known heritage practices responsible for community wellbeing and environmental sustainability. Yet, handmade production and human-nature connections face external pressures as humans shift to an increasingly virtual landscape to source information, entertainment, and community. The ways in which papermakers and kaavad artisans in Rajasthan are responding to such pressures remain underexplored. In addition, though kaavad and handmade paper are well understood as historical narrative tools, less work has explored the ways in which the traditions are adapting and the impact this has on artisan wellbeing in 2026. My research seeks to fill these gaps through thoughtful partnership and storytelling with artisans in Jaipur and Bassi, India.