I am a scholar of early America whose scholarship focuses on the intersections of popular culture with political and military history. I ask questions such as: How was the American Revolution shaped by popular culture? What are the changing criteria for fame and celebrity over the course of the nation's history? My public history work also focuses on the period before 1900 but ranges much more widely, including oystering and environmental change in the Chesapeake Bay, the legacies of the Mayflower landing, and considering the impact of Revolutionary War battlefields on local Indigenous and African American communities. This wide array of work requires a familiarity with many source materials, so I also write and work with students and other audiences on historical method -- how to use historical evidence ranging from art, architecture, and smaller artifacts to big data and the many types of published and manuscript documents that can illuminate the past and connect it to our lives today.

Positions

• Associate Professor of History and Director of Museum Studies, University of Delaware 2020 - 2023
• Edward & Helen Hintz Secretarial Scholar and Curator of American Politics and Culture, National Museum of American History 2017 - 2020
• Associate Professor of History and Coordinator of Museum Studies, St. Mary's College of Maryland 2008 - 2016

Research Areas

• American History to 1900
• Historical Method
• Popular Culture

Geographic Focus

• North America  Continent