I am an interdisciplinary U.S. Historian specializing in African American History, Carceral Studies, and International Legal and Political Thought. I received my PhD from Harvard in 2017, and served as American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Mellon Public Fellow at the Vera Institute of Justice and Alternate ROOTS in New Orleans. This year, I will join Brown University's Watson Institute for International & Public Affairs to finish my first book, a history of incarceration and American empire, under contract with The New Press.
I teach courses in History, African American Studies, and International & Public Affairs, incorporating transnational, comparative, and digital methods. I have been recognized for my teaching and new media work, including being named the National Council of Social Studies (NCSS) Outstanding Teacher of the Year for the United States, receiving Harvard’s Derek Bok Center Certificate of Distinction in Teaching, and winning an Omni Gold Award for The Calderwood U.S. History Series produced by WGBH Boston for PBS Learning Media. I recently co-directed Louisiana’s contribution to the States of Incarceration national public history project and traveling exhibit.
I have published and forthcoming writing in a variety of venues including International Labor and Working-Class History, International Review of Social History, Archive Journal, American Federation of Teachers Journal, Academic Exchange Quarterly, Journal of the Oxford University History Society, Prison Photography, ArcGIS Online, the Vera Institute of Justice, and Medium.com. My research has been supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, American Council of Learned Societies, Charles Warren Center for American History, and the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research.