I am both a scholar and public historian committed to rigorous research and engaging story-telling.

As a scholar, I approach the past with an interdisciplinary method and expansive outlook, incorporating a wide array of fields and disciplines from archaeology and architecture to art history and material culture to oenology and botany. My award-winning book, This Is Our Home: Slavery and Struggle on Southern Plantations(University of North Carolina Press, 2023), illuminates how enslaved people across the plantation South used material culture and the built environment in their struggle to transform sites of forced occupation and exploitation into homes. This Is Our Home won the 2026 Deep South Book Prize from the Summersell Center for the South at the University of Texas at Dallas, the 2023 James Broussard Best First Book Prize from the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, the 2024 Ramirez Family Award for Most Significant Scholarly Work from the Texas Institute of Letters, and a Choice Outstanding Academic Title from the Association of College and Research Libraries, as well as an Honorable Mention for the 2024 Willie Lee Rose Prize from the Southern Association for Women Historians.

I am now at work on a book about the southern origins of the American wine industry. From Revolution to Reconstruction, southerners dreamed and schemed about creating a profitable wine industry using enslaved, indentured, and immigrant labor. Their stories reveal a complicated and intriguing reality: that the pursuit of wine in the American South paved the way for success in the American West. To enhance my research and writing, I attained a Level 2 certificate in wine from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust.

I am dedicated to doing history with and in the public. I meet audiences where they are through traditional means like articles and essays, school curricula, curated exhibits, and presentations at museums, historic sites, and libraries, as well as through digital portals like podcasts, websites, and video content. I have cultivated skills of leadership, collaboration, and adaptability by directing teams of staff, volunteers, and students; chairing committees on research and interpretation; conducting national and regional history audits; and working with guides and educators on audience engagement.

I’m a proud alumna of Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, the University of St. Thomas, and Rice University, where I received my PhD in History in 2017. I then moved my academic home to the University of Texas at Dallas, where in 2024 I became an associate professor of history and faculty in the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History. While at UTD, I continued to consult and volunteer with local, state, and national organizations like the Texas Department of Transportation and the National Parks Service. Clearly, the pull of public history has always been strong, and in February 2025, I became the Director of Collections and Education at Coastal Georgia Historical Society on St. Simons Island. I oversaw all mission-related activities, from curatorial and historic preservation to archaeology and public programs, as well as lead a team of dedicated public historians. In August 2025, I became the Society’s fifth Executive Director, overseeing the organization at a time of growth as we seek to deepen our role as a community museum and realize our role as the region’s center for historical education and research.

Learn out more about my work through my academic C.V. or résumé. And please contact me with any questions, comments, or opportunities!