Scholar - Women Also Know History

Participant Info

Keywords: US South, nineteenth century, Civil War, Reconstruction, nationalism, transnational and international history, Confederate nationalism, southern identity

About Me: I am a historian of the nineteenth century US South, Civil War era, southern nationalism, and transnational history.

I’m interested in issues of southern identity and how the US South fits into a broader international context. My research focuses on international influences on the development of southern and Confederate nationalism and identity. My first book, Newest Born of Nations (UVA Press 2020), argues that elite white southerners used their analysis of European nationalist movements to refine their vision of what a nation should be, to develop a sense that the South differed from North on issues of nationhood, and to legitimize their visions of southern nationhood during secession and the Civil War. My in-progress second book project, the first portion of which is available in Reconciliation after Civil Wars: Global Perspectives (Routledge Press), will examine how former Confederates continued to use their international perspectives on nationhood to navigate and renegotiate their nationalism during Reconstruction.

I am an associate professor of history at the University of North Georgia, where I teach courses on US, southern, Georgia, and transnational history. I earned my PhD and MA at the University of South Carolina, and BA at Wake Forest University.

Recent Publications: Newest Born of Nations: European Nationalist Movements and the Making of the Confederacy, University of Virginia Press, June 2020.

“To ‘Heal the Wounded Spirit’: Former Confederates’ International Perspective on Reconstruction and Reconciliation,” in Reconciliation after Civil Wars: Global Perspectives, ed. Paul Quigley and James Hawdon. Routledge, 2018.