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About Me

“So we shall let the reader answer this question for himself: who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?”

— Hunter S. Thompson, “Security,” 1955

I’m a PhD candidate in twentieth-century American political and cultural history at the University of Alabama, where I’m currently a History Department Dissertation Fellow (2025–2026). I received an MA in history and a graduate minor in women’s studies from the University of Mississippi.

The title of my project is “Blacklisted Women: Lillian Hellman, Tallulah Bankhead, and Fredi Washington” (recipient of a New York Public Library short-term fellowship). Outside of academia, I’ve been published in outlets like The Washington Post and TIME.

Recent Publications

Essays (Online)

Lillian Hellman: Southern Writer, Southern Woman, Deep South Magazine (forthcoming)

Riverton: A Casualty of Change, Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area (forthcoming)

To Understand Trump’s Appeal (to his Base), Look to Alabama History, TIME, January 25, 2024 (not an endorsement)

The Politics of Tallulah Bankhead, Women’s History Network, January 18, 2023

Buddha, Bird City, and Jungle Gardens, Deep South Magazine, December 14, 2022

Can rappers be jailed for lyrics and image? History shows they can, The Washington Post, July 18, 2022

Water Valley, Mississippi and the Legend of Casey Jones, Deep South Magazine, June 7, 2022

The Delta Mansion That Inspired Tennessee Williams, Deep South Magazine, March 24, 2022

Irene Scruggs and American Expats in Europe, Women’s History Network, January 31, 2022

Joe Manchin might be principled. Or he might scorn his own constituents,The Washington Post, January 27, 2022 (not an endorsement)

Viral sorority TikTok videos share only one side of Southern university life, The Washington Post, August 27, 2021

Frank Lloyd Wright in the Deep South, Deep South Magazine, August 6, 2021

Historic Highway 90: The Southern Route 66, y’all.com, July 29, 2021

The Mississippi Delta: One-Of-A-Kind History And Food, y’all.com, July 14, 2021

Essays (Print)

Cooking with Lillian Hellman, 64 Parishes (forthcoming; Summer 2026)

Mahogany and Status in Early Charleston, Early American Life (forthcoming)

Elmwood Cemetery and the Art of Dionicio Rodriguez, Alabama Heritage (Summer 2024)

Mt. Nebo Cemetery and Isaac Nettles’s Death Mask Gravestones, Alabama Heritage (Spring 2023)

Plastic Paradise: A short history about an unusual home, Atomic Ranch (Design Issue 2022)

Out on Good Behaviour, History Today, Vol. 74, No. 11 (Nov. 2021)

Roosevelt’s Southern Connection, History Today, Vol. 71, No. 3 (March 2021)

Peer-Reviewed Articles

The Loyal Friendship: Theodore Roosevelt and John A. McIlhenny in Louisiana, North Louisiana History (forthcoming)

Book Reviews

Review of Williams, Tennessee, Early Stories by Tennessee Williams (eds. Tom Mitchell and Thomas Keith), Southern Review of Books, (forthcoming; June, 2025)

Review of Brettle, Adrian, Colossal Ambitions, H-Nationalism, H-Net Reviews, May, 2023

M.A. Thesis

A War Of Ideas: L.Q.C. Lamar And American Political Thought, University of Mississippi (2020)

Media Coverage

“The Roundup Top Ten for January 28, 2022” (Featured Author), History News Network, https://hnn.us/article/182314

Social Media

Country Focus

United States

Expertise by Geography

United States

Expertise by Chronology

20th century

Expertise by Topic

Local & Regional, Politics, Women