sample storytelling
Beyond the Plantation: Poor Whites in the Antebellum South
[lecturer]
Nineteenth-century Americans often invoked the yeoman farmer. But did this individual exist outside of Thomas Jefferson’s imagination? And if so, why are he and his family conspicuously absent from most histories of the Old South? Guest lecture in “History 55F: Civil War and Reconstruction, 1830 to 1877,” at Stanford University.
Look Closer: Public Opening at Monticello
[event + media producer]
What does it mean for a plantation-turned-museum to grapple with the history and legacies of slavery? In 2018, Monticello unveiled new exhibits and newly-restored spaces in conjunction with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the “Getting Word” oral history project, which records the memories of descendants of families enslaved by Thomas Jefferson. This video launched the public celebration on June 16, 2018.
Face the Nation: 50 Years Since Kennedy’s Assassination
[producer]
For a generation of Americans, this was a defining moment: Walter Cronkite announcing President Kennedy’s death, from the CBS newsroom, on November 22, 1963. On the fiftieth anniversary of Kennedy’s assassination, we dug into the network’s archive to recover this history — and its broader meaning — for a twenty-first century audience. This Emmy Award-winning broadcast aired on November 17, 2013.
recent appearances
7.28.25 webinar: AI in the history classroom
A conversation hosted by the Organization of American Historians
7.31.25 panel: historians and their worlds
Presented work in progress, “What Constitutes a Nation: The Making of Emma Willard’s History of the United States,” at the pacific coast branch meeting of the American Historical Association
5.23.25 panel: BOCA LONGA US History Conference
Presented “Nourished with the Remains of Roman Grandeur: Jefferson, Slavery, and the Making of a National Architecture,” a paper drawing on the first chapter of my dissertation, at the annual BOCA LONGA conference in London, UK
5.8.25 workshop: presenting your research
Led session for undergraduate thesis writers in Stanford’s History Department
3.10.25 workshop: teaching with images
Led interdisciplinary pedagogy session for the Leadership in Inclusive Teaching Series, hosted by Stanford’s Center for Teaching and Learning
1.16.25 public research talk: Stanford Humanities Center
Delivered a talk on my dissertation research as a 2024-25 Next Generation Fellow at the Stanford Humanities Center
11.8.22 book talk: Citizen Justice [moderator]
8.21 book talk: Murder at the Mission [moderator]
2.21 book talk: Imperfect Union [guest interlocutor]