Tamara McCarty is a PhD candidate specializing in late-medieval European dance practices. Her dissertation Marginalized Motion: Late-Medieval German Dance in Law, Practice, and Memory focuses on fifteenth- and sixteenth-century dance in southern Germany, the impact of secular law on the performance of cultural identity, and the politics of medieval dance reenactment today. She has presented her research to the Dance Studies Association, the Society of Dance History Scholars, and the Hayes Graduate Research Forum. She currently serves as the PhD Graduate Student Representative on the Dance Department Graduate Studies Committee, and she formerly served as Social Media Officer for the Medieval and Renaissance Graduate Student Association at OSU. Prior to her doctoral studies, Tamara worked in non-profit fundraising for the School of American Ballet and performed as a freelance dance artist. Tamara earned her BFA in Dance with honors at California State University, Long Beach, where she received the Outstanding Undergraduate Research Student award.