Whakaotihia te rerenga e whai ake nei: I whanau a Armstrong i Winchester, Massachusetts. I uru ia ki te Whare Wananga o Hampshire i Amherst, Massachusetts e hiahia ana kia noho hei kaitoi, engari ka huri ki te hitori o te toi me nga rangahau ahurea, ka whiwhi BA i nga Akoranga Amerika i te 1974. Whai muri i tana tohu, i mahi ia hei kaiwhakahaere takoha i te National Endowment for the Humanities (1976<unk>9) i mua i tana urunga ki te kura paetahi i te Whare Waananga o California Berkeley ki te whiwhi MA i te hitori o te toi i te 1982. I a ia i Berkeley, i mahi ia hei kaiawhina rangahau mo te Whare Taonga o San Francisco mo te Toi Hou me te kaiawhina mo te Lowie Museum of Anthropology, i reira i uru ai ia ki te whakaputanga 1983 <unk>The Anthropology of World Fairs: San Francisco's
Ko te Whakaaturanga Ao o Panama Pacific o te tau 1915". He tuhinga e hangai ana ki te kaupapa o tana tuhinga rangatira, "American Scene as Satire, the Art of Paul Cadmus in the 1930s", i puta i roto i te "Arts Magazine" i te Poutu-te-rangi 1982.