I am a PhD candidate in history at Stanford University, studying American slavery and memory. My work explores constructions of the past in public space — the remembering and forgetting that unfolds across the memorial landscape, in textbooks and museum halls, and on tour at historic sites. I am completing a dissertation on the long public history of the Monticello plantation: beginning with Thomas Jefferson’s own conception of the site as a public exposition, continuing with the interpretive politics of the Jim Crow era, and concluding with more recent efforts to make slavery legible to visitors. This research has been supported by the International Center for Jefferson Studies, the Stanford Humanities Center, and the Mellon Foundation.
Previously, I was a producer for CBS News’ Face the Nation, where I won an Emmy for contributions to a broadcast commemorating the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination, in 2013. More recently, I worked for the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello, as part of the team that developed the Life of Sally Hemings exhibit. I continue to advise on museum and media projects with a historical bent.