The College of

Arts and Sciences

Fields

French Empire; Transnationalism; Race, Religion and Ethnicity; Heritage and Museum Studies

 

Bio

I am a historian of modern Europe, transnationalism and the politics of heritage and place. My current book project, “Resurrect the Past: France's Forgotten Heritage Campaign in the Levant Mandate,” examines the ramifications of work undertaken by archaeologists in the French mandate for Syria and Lebanon, a quasi-colonial regime set up after the First World War. I focus not only on how archaeologists’ work at Palmyra, Byblos and crusader castles shaped a sense of cultural heritage in the mandate proper, but also back in Europe, where Louvre curators were rebranding France’s flagship museum as a repository for Western civilization. My research has been supported by the Council for European Studies, the Société des Professeurs Français et Francophones d’Amérique and the Michel Beaujour Fellowship.

 

I have presented my research at the annual meetings of the Council for European Studies, Society of French Historical Studies, Western Society for French History, the Midwest Junto for the History of Science, as well as international conferences organized by the German Historical Institute London and INALCO in Paris.

 

I teach courses on modern Europe and world history, as well as courses on the history of ethnicity, religion, heritage and museums. My World War I course emphasizes the conflict's imperial and postcolonial history beyond the Western Front, and I enjoy teaching the survey course "History of Present," which treats topics such as antisemitism, scientific racism, crimes against humanity, multiculturalism and the politics of collective memory. I frequently instruct the undergraduate methods course for history majors, Introduction to the Study of History, and advise graduate students in transnational, European and public history.

 

Courses Taught

HIST 2023 – History of the Present

HIST 3903 – Introduction to the Study of History

HIST 3323 – Modern France, 1789 - Present

HIST 3343 – World War I in Modern European Culture

HIST 5140 – Reading Seminar in European History since 1789

Directed Readings, Honors Add-Ons, and Honors Contracts: Sex and Gender in French Film; Race, Ethnicity & Museums; Americans in Europe in WWII; Race & WWI from a Transnational Perspective