I am a public historian and scholar whose work ranges from books and articles about the intersection of popular and political culture to museum exhibitions and programs about oystering, the ivory trade, and the legacies of the Mayflower landing. The theme that ties it all together is an emphasis on how the past shapes the present. As Director of Museum Studies and Public History, I help students learn the professional skills required to apply their growing expertise to non-scholarly audiences, for whom a personal or contemporary connection often heightens understanding and impact. I come to this position after having spent more than twenty years working for institutions big and small, from the Smithsonian and the National Park Service to historic houses and local museums. I also graduated from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture and completed my dissertation at UD in 2008.

My work has been funded by numerous grants from archives and universities around the country, as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fulbright program, and the Getty Leadership Institute for museum professionals. In addition to articles in scholarly journals and popular media, my first book, They Will Have Their Game: Sporting Culture and the Making of the Early American Republic, won the James Broussard Prize for best first book from the Society of Historians of the Early American Republic. Current projects include articles on museum objects made by prison labor and the history of entertainment memorabilia collecting, the catalog for a major Smithsonian exhibit on the history of commercial entertainment in the U.S., and a book exploring the evolution of Halls of Fame from institutions enshrining politicians, inventors, and soldiers to institutions that primarily enshrine entertainers.