Education
PhD., Vanderbilt University, May 2022
- Dissertation: “‘Freedom Was Their North Star:’ African American Women’s Efforts to Define and Secure Freedom in the American Civil War”
- Advisor: Richard Blackett
Scottish MAhons., University of Edinburgh, 2015
- Dissertation: “Crafted ‘By Their Own Hands’: African American Religious Experience in Union Occupied North Carolina, 1861-1865”
- Advisor: David Silkenat
Employment
- University Fellow, History Department, UNC Asheville, July 2022 – Present
- Archival Researcher, Center for Latin American Studies, Vanderbilt University, June 2018 -August 2018
- Research Assistant, Kim Welch, Vanderbilt University, June 2017 – September 2017
- Graduate Assistant, Black Cultural Center, Vanderbilt University, January 2017 – July 2017
Publications
- “Crafted ‘By Their Own Hands’: African American Religious Experience in Union Occupied North Carolina, 1862-1865,” North Carolina Historical Review, Vol.94, July 2017. p. 299-332.
Awards
- Certificate in Humanities Teaching and Learning, Vanderbilt Center for Teaching, 2019
- Distinguished Student Award, Vanderbilt Black Cultural Center, 2018
- Harold Sterling Vanderbilt Scholarship, Vanderbilt University, 2016
- Compton Prize for American History, University of Edinburgh, 2015
Grants & Fellowships
- J. Léon Helguera Endowed Fellow, Vanderbilt University, 2021-2022
- Summer Residency in Meaningful Pedagogy, National Humanities Center, 2021
- Graduate Teaching Fellow, Center for Teaching, Vanderbilt University, 2020-2021
- Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellow, Library Company Philadelphia, 2019-2020
- Dissertation Fellow, Wilson Library, University North Carolina Chapel Hill, 2019-2020
- Ruth R. Miller Fellowship, Massachusetts Historical Society, 2019-2020
- Neilsen Public Liberal Arts Teaching Fellow, Nielsen Center, Eckerd College, 2023
Conferences & Public Service
- Guest Speaker, Etowah Public Library: “She was Hunting Freedom: Black Women’s Civil War,” June 2023
- Faculty Advisor, Asheville Christian Academy: Asheville Christian School Senior Thesis Panelist, 2022-2023
- Writer, Common Good Magazine: “What Do We Miss in the Fatherlessness Conversation?”, January 2023
- Editor, Gibbs-Smith Publisher: Gibbs-Smith AP African American History Textbook Reader/Editor, Summer 2022
- Conference Paper, Southern Historical Association Panel: “She Was Hunting Freedom: Enslaved Women’s Efforts to Leave the Confederacy,” November 2021
- Podcast Co-Host, Highest Good Media: “Carved in Ebony,” November 2021
- Podcast Guest, Sweet Tea with Jasmine and Portia: “History and the Gospel with Abena Ansah-Wright,” May 2021
- Workshop Series Co-Coordinator, Vanderbilt Center for Teaching: “Teaching Race in Higher Education,” 2020-2021
- Panelist, 300th Anniversary of History at Edinburgh University: “What is the function and purpose of history in times of rapid social, political and technological change?”, November 2019
- Researcher, Vanderbilt Center for Latin American Studies, Summer 2018
- Conference Paper, Vanderbilt University’s Wrestling with Our Past Conference: “Freedom Constrained: Black Nashville in Slavery and Freedom,” March 2018
Teaching
- IoR, “Black Civil War and Reconstruction: A Freedom Narrative,” Spring 2023
- IoR, “Black Women Leaders,” Spring 2023
- Guest Lecturer, “Research Cataloging and Note-Taking,” for History Thesis Course, Fall 2022
- Guest Lecturer, “Uncovering Marginalized Voices: Research Methods,” Historians’ Craft, Fall 2022
- IoR, “African American History to 1865: African American Experience and Culture,” Fall 2022
- IoR and Co-Lecturer, “Slavery in American History,” Spring 2022
- Graduate Teaching Fellow, Graduate student pedagogical development seminars, June 2020 – June 2021
- TA, “Capital, Labor and Democracy in the United States,” Spring 2019
- TA, “American History 1877-1945,” Fall 2018