My current book project, Thy Will Be Done: Manipulating the Memory of George Washington and Slavery, explores how generations of Americans have remembered and forgotten George Washington’s involvement with slavery. For the better part of 250 years, Americans have viewed Washington’s entanglements with slavery through the lens of their particular cultural and political moments, selectively remembering Washington’s history as one of the nation’s most prolific enslavers and the architect of one of the its largest private emancipations. The book dives deep into this history, exploring how successive generations have grappled with slavery’s place in Washington’s legacy, offering a new historical foundation for today’s debates about slavery and the nation’s founding. The book will be published in early 2026 by University of North Carolina Press.

In my first book, Black Freedom in the Age of Slavery: Race, Status, and Identity in the Urban Americas (2020), I explored the lives of free people of color in in Charleston, South Carolina, and Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. My public history writing has appeared in the Washington Post, TIME, and Smithsonian Magazine, and elsewhere.

As a public history researcher, I investigate the state of the U.S. public history community and history’s role in American life. I serve as the Director of Research and Strategic Initiatives at the American Association for State and Local History—the national professional association for public history institutions and professionals—where I help connect emerging research with history practitioners across the country. In addition to researching the field, I lead national planning and resource development efforts to prepare the public history field for the U.S. 250th anniversary in 2026, and manage other special initiatives that serve history museums, historic sites, and others in the public history community.

I have a Ph.D. in history from Rice University. I’m a New Jersey native currently living outside Washington, DC.

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