Laura Rubin is an aggressively-interdisciplinary writer, lecturer, and costumer living and working in the Silicon Valley. She brings together the history of dress and technology, with an emphasis in experimental archaeology and primary source research.

Some of her areas of interest include:

  • Archaeology and material culture
  • Food history, especially sweets, baked goods, and gelatin
  • Historical architecture and architectural preservation
  • History of pre-industrial cosmetics and medicine
  • Carnivorous plants
  • Historical costume and clothing
  • Historical textile and cloth production
  • Patent garment pattern drafting systems and devices
  • Sewing machines and sewing machine repair
  • 1.3g (display) pyrotechnics
  • Theatrical costume and costume design techniques
  • Information theory
  • Internet security
  • Futurist and cyberpunk fiction
  • Victorian social dance
  • Startup culture and social dynamics
  • Skeuomorphic repurposing
  • Archival and museum conservation and restoration

To speak in the first person briefly, I’ve lived an interesting life and that’s brought me a wide array of experiences, interests, and hobbies. I’ve worked in food service, set carpentry, costume design, government data entry, event production, videoconference technology, and tier-two customer support - and that’s just before I found my actual career path.

Within my career path I’ve been a technical writer for both print and online content, a UX researcher and designer, a product manager, program manager, instructional designer, trainer, and information architect.