I am a historian, public history researcher, and writer helping the public better understand history and helping history professionals better understand the public.

As a scholar, my research focuses on the history of race, slavery, and culture in the United States and Atlantic World. I am currently a Kluge Fellow at the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, researching and writing a book about how generations of Americans have remembered and forgotten George Washington’s ties to slavery and its impact on his legacy. 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 the Public History Research Lab 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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