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About Me

I am a historian whose work explores the intersections of memory, gender, and migration in the United States and the wider Atlantic world. My scholarship examines how communities remember conflict, how women negotiated power within legal and social structures, and how migration shaped identities and landholding patterns. I am the author of Sacred Memories: A Guide to Civil War Monuments of Texas and have published widely on Civil War memory, Confederate monuments, and women’s property rights. My current research focuses on Irish immigration to the American South and Texas, with special attention to women’s roles as landowners and cultural brokers.

In addition to academic writing, I engage with broader audiences through documentary consultation, public lectures, and museum work. My recent projects include serving as historical expert for the film Quakertown, USA and contributing to conversations on rural women’s political participation. With over thirty years of teaching experience at the university level, I bring a strong commitment to making history accessible, rigorous, and relevant to today’s audiences.

I welcome inquiries from journalists and media outlets seeking historical perspective on topics including Civil War memory, women’s history, Irish migration, and the uses of history in public life.

Recent Publications

Redefining Frontier Womanhood: Irish Female Landownership in Mexican Texas (Journal of Texas History, forthcoming Fall 2025)
Shows how Irish immigrant women in early Texas defied expectations by becoming significant landholders, reframing both migration history and women’s economic power.

Speaking of Chipita: Legend, Voice, and Folklore as Memory (Texas Folklore Society, Legends in Texas and the Southwest, forthcoming 2025)
Explores the contested memory of Josefa “Chipita” Rodriguez, the only woman legally executed in Texas, and how her story endures in folklore, ghost tales, and cultural identity.

Breaking the Chains of Matrimony: Divorce Among Formerly Enslaved Women in Tennessee, 1865–1930 (West Tennessee Historical Society Papers, 2023)
Uncovers how African American women used divorce petitions to assert autonomy after emancipation, offering rare insights into family, freedom, and survival in the Reconstruction South.

Rural Women and Political Power in Texas Counties (West Texas Historical Review, 2023)
Examines how rural women shaped local politics through elected offices, challenging assumptions about women’s disengagement from formal political life.

Sacred Memories: A Guide to Civil War Monuments of Texas (Texas State Historical Association Press, 2009)
A groundbreaking study of Confederate monuments and Civil War memory in Texas, awarded the T. R. Fehrenbach Prize. Widely cited in current debates over historical commemoration.

Media Coverage

Historical Expert, documentary Quakertown, USA (2024) Quoted and consulted for regional media on Civil War monuments, public memory, and women’s history Regular presenter at national conferences (Rural Women’s Studies Association, Southern Associati

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Country Focus

United States, Ireland

Expertise by Geography

Ireland, United Kingdom, United States

Expertise by Chronology

18th century, 19th century, 20th century

Expertise by Topic

American Civil War, Art & Architectural History, Colonialism, Emancipation, Gender, Higher Ed, Migration & Immigration, Pedagogy, Race, Rural & Agrarian History, Women