Participant Info

First Name
Megan
Last Name
Brett
Affiliation
Website URL
http://meganrbrett.net/
Keywords
family strategies, early republic, digital humanities, digital history, national identity
Additional Contact Information

Personal Info

Photo
About Me

I am a historian focusing on the Early American Republic (1780-1830), the long eighteenth century in the British Atlantic, material culture, and families as networks. I received my PhD in 2022 from George Mason University. My dissertation examined the intersection of family strategies and the formation of national identity for Americans abroad in the post revolutionary period, using the Maury family of Virginia and Liverpool as a case study.

I am an experienced public historian and digital humanist. From 2014 through 2022, I was the Digital History Associate at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. My work with RRCHNM ranged from technical planning and project management through content creation and sometimes outreach. Projects which I managed included the award-winning Histories of the National Mall website and the Papers of the War Department community transcription project. I served as the End User Outreach Coordinator for the Omeka web publishing platform for seven years, in which capacity I wrote user manuals, conducted accessibility audits, and developed and conducted training workshops.

I am committed to accessibility above and beyond the baseline of legal requirements. I am inspired by Roy Rosenzweig’s wish to “democratize the study of the past”.

Recent Publications

With Mills Kelly and Jessica Otis. “Reframing the Conversation: Digital Humanities, Disabilities, and Accessibility.” In Debates in the Digital Humanities 2023, edited by Matthew K. Gold and Lauren F. Klein. Minneapolis; London: University of Minnesota Press, 2023.

“An Impressive Consul in Liverpool,” September 22, 2020, in Consolation Prize, produced by Abigail Mullen, podcast, 28:38, https://consolationprize.rrchnm.org/2020/09/22/episode-2-an-impressive-consul-in-liverpool/

Media Coverage
Country Focus
United States
Expertise by Geography
British Isles, United Kingdom, United States
Expertise by Chronology
18th century, 19th century
Expertise by Topic
American Founding Era, Computational, Family, Public History