We’ve asked those attending VCEA 2019 to provide a brief description of their research interests to facilitate networking opportunities during the meeting. Please see below for the information:
James Ambuske (ambuske@law.virginia.edu)
Era of the American Revolution, Transatlantic legal history, Digital History
Frances Bell (frbell@email.wm.edu)
THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION IN THE ATLANTIC WORLD – specifically, refugees from the Revolution in the Early Republic; and the impact of French emancipation on the Early Republic.
Nicole Belolan (nicole.belolan@rutgers.edu)
I am a historian of MATERIAL CULTURE AND DISABILITY IN EARLY AMERICA, working on a book on that topic. At Rutgers-Camden, I am Co-Editor of The Public Historian and Digital Media Editor, both for the National Council on Public History (NCPH). I am also the director of a continuing ed. program in historic preservation at Rutgers.
Hannah Boettcher (hboettcher@amrevmuseum.org)
MATERIAL CULTURE, PUBLIC HISTORY, AMERICAN ART, AMERICAN REVOLUTION. I research collections history, particularly Washingtoniana, American art, and material culture. As a museum professional in public programs, I am interested in object-based learning, adult learning, and new scholarship on the American Revolution.
Kimberly Borchard (kcborchard@gmail.com)
COLONIAL APPALACHIA, EARLY AMERICA, COLONIAL LATIN AMERICA
I have spent the last decade studying the influence of Spanish treasure-seeking in the colonial Americas on the European race to settle the Appalachian Mountains.
Katie Boyce (klboyce@email.wm.edu)
ENVIRONMENT, SPORTS, RECREATION, PUBLIC SPACES, RACISM
David Brown (dabro3@email.wm.edu)
PLANTATIONS, MATERIAL CULTURE, LANDSCAPE, ARCHAEOLOGY, CARTOGRAPHY
I am focused on how non-profit organizations can help preserve, interpret, and promote the preservation of our shared heritage.
August Butler (ambutl@email.wm.edu)
CHILDREN & CHILDHOOD, POSTEMANCIPATION VIRGINIA
My dissertation examined orphan asylums for African American children in Virginia from 1867-1930, and how their changing priorities reflected the changes occurring in Virginia during and after Reconstruction.
Caylin Carbonell (cecarbonell@email.wm.edu)
WOMEN AND GENDER, HOUSEHOLD LABOR, HISTORY OF SLAVERY; My dissertation focuses on labor and authority in early New England households. I am particularly interested in gendered authority and relationships between household heads and their various dependents.
Todi Carnes (todicarnes@verizon.net)
MASON, WASHINGTON, AND FAIRFAX FAMILIES
Lindsay Chervinsky (lindsay.chervinsky@gmail.com)
POLITICS, INSTITUTIONS, CULTURE
Sara Collini (scolli16@gmu.edu)
Women and Gender, Slavery, Health and Medicine, Digital History
Libby Cook (libby.cook@dhr.virginia.gov)
MATERIAL CULTURE, BUILT ENVIRONMENT, LABOR PRACTICES
Elizabeth Covart (emcovart@wm.edu)
Mariaelena DiBenigno (mdibenigno@email.wm.edu)
My research concerns VIRGINIA’S PUBLIC HISTORY and MUSEUMS, specifically the FOLKLORE shared onsite.
Michael Dickinson (mldickinson@vcu.edu)
African American history, colonial and early republic America, comparative slavery, and Black Atlantic history.
Nicole Dressler (nkdressler@wm.edu)
UNFREE LABOR, ABOLITIONISM, & HUMANITARIANISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE ATLANTIC WORLD
Carolyn Eastman (ceastman@vcu.edu)
HISTORIES OF THE MEDIA, GENDER & SEXUALITY, POLITICAL CULTURE, CELEBRITY, PERFORMANCE
Max Edelson (edelson@virginia.edu)
SPACE, COLONIZATION, MAPS, GEOGRAPHY, DIGITAL HISTORY.
Ana Edwards (edwardsa@vcu.edu)
EARLY AMERICAN, AFRICAN AMERICAN, SLAVERY
Phillip Emanuel (plemanuel@email.wm.edu)
ATLANTIC, BOOK HISTORY, MATERIAL CULTURE
My research is on the use of performances of knowledge by imperial administrators in late-Stuart Britain to claim roles for themselves in that administration. It also considers their use of books, material culture and their households to assert the status necessary to pursue such
careers.
Jeff Felton (jfelton1@vt.edu)
CIVIL WAR ERA, CONFEDERATE AND SOUTHERN HISTORY, AMERICAN HISTORY, COLONIAL AMERICAN HISTORY, BRITISH IMPERIAL HISTORY
Donovan Fifield (dpf5mv@virginia.edu)
I am researching the role of a colonial American family firm, Charles Apthorp and Son, in establishing connections between the imperial British state and the American commercial world in the long eighteenth century.
Lisa Francavilla (lisafrancavilla7@gmail.com)
19TH-CENTURY WOMEN, GENDER, FAMILY, American masculinity, material culture, capitalism, mercantilism, travel, travel writing, theater and literature. I am a project facilitator and administrator, author and editor, with experience in print and electronic publication, public history, conference and event planning, and public speaking,
Robert Galgano (rgalgano@richmond.edu)
NATIVE AMERICAN HISTORY, COLONIAL AMERICAS
Frank Garmon Jr. (frank.garmon@cnu.edu)
AMERICAN ECONOMIC, BUSINESS HISTORY, POLITICAL ECONOMY
I am revising my dissertation into a book project on taxation and federalism in the early republic.
Alexi Garrett (asg4c@virginia.edu)
WOMEN, GENDER, VIRGINIA, EARLY REPUBLIC, SLAVERY, BUSINESS
David Geraghty (geraghtyda@longwood.edu)
EARLY AMERICAN TRANS-APPALACHIAN MIGRATION
Amanda Gibson (awgibson@email.wm.edu)
ECONOMIC HISTORY, CAPITALISM, AFRICAN AMERICAN
Ashley Gilbert (gilbertan@longwood.edu)
Richard Godbeer (rgodbeer@vcu.edu)
GENDER, SEXUALITY, RELIGION, WITCHCRAFT, AMERICAN REVOLUTION
I have just finished a joint biography of Elizabeth and Henry Drinker, entitled SURVIVING THE REVOLUTION and in production with Yale University Press.
Looking forward, I am planning to write books about conceptions of gender in Early America and also the theater in Early America.
Cassandra Good (cgood@marymount.edu)
GENDER, FAMILY, MATERIAL CULTURE. I am currently working on a book on George Washington’s step-grandchildren, the Custises, and the ways in which they shaped their public image and role from the Revolution to the Civil War. The book draws on manuscripts, homes, and objects to suggest the power of family.
Nathanial Green (ncgreen@nvcc.edu)
EARLY U.S. POLITICS AND POLITICAL CULTURE; the American presidency, American government
Kate Gruber (katherine.gruber@jyf.virginia.gov)
MUSEUMS, PUBLIC HISTORY, CURATORIAL
Holly Gruntner (hlgruntner@email.wm.edu)
EARLY AMERICAN WOMEN, KNOWLEDGE, LABOR
Mark Guerci (mtguerci@email.wm.edu)
Slavery and Abolitionism in Historical Memory
Steven Harris-Scott (sscott4@gmu.edu)
UNFREE LABOR, APPRENTICESHIP, COLONIAL VIRGINIA, ATLANTIC WORLD
My research interests revolve around unfree labor in colonial Virginia. In particular, I have been focusing more on apprentices during the 17th and early-18th centuries lately. I am trying to develop a taxonomy of apprenticeship based around the varying types of early apprentices.
Christine Henry (chenry5@umw.edu)
HISTORIC PRESERVATION, ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY, focused on the process of placemaking, the intersection of the built environment and community identity with particular interest in issues of social justice and diversifying the communities who participate in preservation.
Lisa Hilleary (hillearyl@tncc.edu)
19TH CENTURY AMERICAN INDUSTRY; AMERICAN REVOLUTION ERA: I spent quite a bit of time focusing on in grad school (my thesis was on Tredegar Iron Works). I have also begun reading more on the Revolution. Further, I am interested in antebellum southern historical topics as well.
Warren Hofstra (whofstra@su.edu)
EARLY AMERICAN SOCIAL / ECONOMIC HISTORY My longstanding interests in the 18th-century backcountry have broadened into a larger study of economic change and the public interest from origins in early American moral economies through the market revolution, the industrial revolution, and the consumer revolution extending into the 20th century.
Danial Howlett (dhowlett@masonlive.gmu.edu)
COLONIAL NORTH AMERICA
DISABILITY HISTORY
DIGITAL HUMANITIES
Sheri Huerta (shuerta@masonlive.gmu.edu)
ENSLAVEMENT, VIRGINIA HISTORY, GENDER and RACE: community studies of race, law, gender in antebellum
Catherine Ingrassia (cingrass@vcu.edu)
BRITISH ATLANTIC; SLAVERY; BOOK TRADE; INDENTURED SERVITUDE
Lisa Jordan (lisa.jordan@southside.edu)
HISTORIC PRESERVATION POLITICAL HISTORY LOCAL HISTORY
The majority of my current research has diverged into two pathways: one centering on local government (historic and contemporary) while the other has explored issues of urban historic preservation and relevance of municipal collections (documents, artifacts, etc.).
Conlan Kastanias (cjk7fw@virginia.edu)
AMERICAN REVOLUTION, INSURGENCY, ALLEGIANCE, SOUTH CAROLINA
Catherine Kelly (cekelly01@wm.edu)
MATERIAL CULTURE GENDER LOYALISTS
Alice King (ak3ur@virginia.edu)
THE PEQUOT WAR: I study cross-cultural diplomacy between the Pequot, the Narragansett, and English colonists in 1630s southern New England. My master’s thesis considers the role of rhetoric in defining communities amid shifting loyalties along the Connecticut and Pequot Rivers.
Katie Lantz (kel6qq@virginia.edu)
NATIVE NORTH AMERICA, EARLY AMERICAN REPUBLIC
Stephanie Lawton (skl5az@virginia.edu)
PRESIDENTS, CLASSICS, MEMORY, RITUAL, FUNERALS. Current Research studies how 19th century Americans looked to funeral rituals and heroes from Ancient Greek and Rome to create a memorial process to commemorate America’s citizen-soldier presidents George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, and Ulysses S. Grant.
Jennifer Levin (jhl5br@virginia.edu)
GULF COAST, COLONIAL RIVALRIES, MATERIAL CULTURE
I am interested in how imperially marginal settlements on the Gulf Coast became centers of intercultural relations in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. My current research considers the development of a system of cautious collaboration between French Louisiana and Spanish Florida.
Shira Lurie (snl2tx@virginia.edu)
POLITICAL CULTURE, PROTEST, EARLY REPUBLIC. Debates over the right to protest in the early republic.
Alexandra Macdonald (ammacdonald@email.wm.edu)
URBAN SPACE, MATERIAL CULTURE, ATLANTIC WORLD, GENDER, CONSUMPTION/ECONOMIC HISTORY. . Common themes running through out my scholarly work include the relationship between gender and material culture in the long eighteenth-century, the intersections of material and intellectual culture, and the role(s) of space in the British Atlantic World.
Allison Madar (amadar@uoregon.edu)
SERVITUDE, SLAVERY, AND THE LAW IN THE EARLY MODERN BRITISH ATLANTIC WORLD
Sarah McCartney (semcca@wm.edu)
BACKCOUNTRY, COMMERCE, MATERIAL CULTURE, PUBLIC HISTORY
Turk McCleskey (mccleskeynt@vmi.edu)
VIRGINIA DEBT LITIGATION, QUANTITATIVE METHODOLOGY,
Morgan McCullough (mtmccullough@email.wm.edu)
WOMEN, BODIES, MATERIAL CULTURE. Focuses on how women’s bodies and body care during menstruation, sex, pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and menopause shaped the formation of race and gender in the early American South.
Sarah Meacham (shmeacham@vcu.edu)
THE INVENTION OF CHEERFULNESS (18C). Emotions, art, cultural, and social histories.
James Merrell (merrell@vassar.edu)
NATIVE AMERICANS before ca. 1850.
Simon Middleton (smiddleton@wm.edu)
EARLY AMERICAN MONEY AND POLITICAL ECONOMY
Mark Mulligan (mmulligan@email.wm.edu)
EARLY AMERICA, COLONIAL NEW ENGLAND, RELIGION, BRITISH ATLANTIC.
Marion Nelson (mcnelson@vcu.edu)
Political/social/cultural history of the vast early American Republic from colonial Virginia onward and westward.
Brooke Newman (bnewman@vcu.edu)
LEGAL HISTORY OF EARLY VIRGINIA
Simon Newman (Simon.Newman@glasgow.ac.uk)
HISTORY OF SLAVERY, including freedom-seeking runaways across the British Atlantic World
George Oberle (goberle@gmu.edu)
I AM INTERESTED IN KNOWLEDGE INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR ROLE IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE AUTHORITY OF KNOWLEDGE AND THE POLITICS OF INFORMATION. I AM ALSO INTERESTED IN TEACHING METHODS AND THE HISTORY OF BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Mitchell Oxford (meoxford@email.wm.edu)
RELIGION IN EARLY AMERICA; AMERICAN CATHOLICISM
I study Catholicism in the early American republic. My dissertation will place the French Revolution at the center of the development of American Catholicism in the early United States.
Marie Pellissier (mapellissier@email.wm.edu)
WOMEN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY COOKBOOKS DIGITAL HUMANITIES I am interested in women’s intellectual history and cookbooks in the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as public history and the digital humanities.
Annie Persons (personsal@mymail.vcu.ed)
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LITERATURE AND CULTURE
Adrienne Petty (ampetty@wm.edu)
U.S. SOUTH, AGRICULTURE
Zachary Pittard (zpittard@pamplinpark.org)
ALL THINGS AMERICAN CIVIL WAR RELATED. My main area of focus is American Civil War history, dispelling myths that arose in the advent of the “Lost Cause,” and general research into all things relating to the military components of the war. I also focus on the 80+ years leading up to the war, what caused the four year struggle, and the aftermath.
Chloe Porche (ccp4jj@virginia.edu)
FUGITIVE SLAVES & EARLY AMERICAN POLITICS
My research interests include examining the social, cultural, and political impacts of slave resistance. Specifically, I am interested in understanding the role that fugitive slaves played in shaping early republic and the antebellum sectional conflicts.
Anne Powell (acpowell@email.wm.edu)
EARLY AMERICAN GENDER AND COMMUNITY
Tyson Reeder (tfr5y@virginia.edu)
SMUGGLERS, PIRATES, FREE TRADE
Rebecca Rosen (rebeccamrosen@gmail.com)
My interests include EARLY AMERICAN LITERATURE, the MEDICAL HUMANITIES, and NATIVE AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS STUDIES. My work focusses on how early Americans used the autopsy as a tool of scientific and testimonial recuperation.
Dylan Ruediger (druediger@historians.org)
NATIVE AMERICAN HISTORY, SETTLER COLONIALISM, HISTORY CAREERS
Ana Ruiz-Fodor (aruiz-fodor@dcc.vccs.edu)
Early modern comparative studies Europe and America.
Emily Sackett (ens4eu@virginia.edu)
GENDER IN EARLY PLANTATION SOCIETIES. My dissertation is on the ways seventeenth-century settlement patterns in plantation societies were gendered, and how those patterns created and reinforced paternalist white supremacy.
Kaila Schwartz (kkschwartz@email.wm.edu)
NAMING PATTERNS-what people named their children, how that changed through time and why, HISTORY OF THE FAMILY-the role of the family in the construction of identity (both self and collective)
Randolph Scully (rscully@gmu.edu)
RELIGION, RACE, SLAVERY, AND HOUSEHOLD in the early modern British Atlantic and early national United States.
Samantha Seeley (sseeley@richmond.edu)
Jason Sellers (jseller4@umw.edu)
ENVIRONMENTAL NATIVES HUDSON VALLEY
Julia Sienkewicz (julia.a.sienkewicz@gmail.com)
ART AND ARCHITECTURE OF THE UNITED STATES.
My current research concerns Benjamin Henry Latrobe’s Virginian watercolors.
Samuel Slattery (saslattery@email.wm.edu)
I am interested in the politics of security in early America: frontier defense, rebellion, slave policing, the militia, and inter-imperial conflict. My particular research is into the political aspects of early American harbor fortresses.
Ryan Smith (rksmith3@vcu.edu)
MATERIAL CULTURE, PUBLIC HISTORY, DIGITAL HISTORY, RELIGION
Dorette Sobolewski (dorette.sobolewski@fcmv.virginia.gov)
SLAVERY, IMMIGRATION, FRONTIER
Joseph Straw (joestraw@gmail.com)
Greta Swain (gswain2@gmu.edu)
Brent Tarter (brent.tarter@lva.virginia.gov)
VIRGINIA HISTORY. I research and write about all aspects of Virginia history, including the colonial and revolutionary period, women’s history, political history, and religious history.
Alan Taylor (ast8f@virginia.edu)
Education in Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia
Jessica Taylor (jessicataylor@vt.edu)
NATIVE HISTORY, MAPS, PROPERTY
Janira Teague (jpteague@nsu.edu)
19th and 20th Century African American History, African American Culture, Migration/Immigration, Social Movements and African American History within a Global Context.
Kathleen Telling (kstelling@email.wm.edu)
RELIGION, WOMEN IN 18th/19th C. AMERICA, GENDER/FAMILY
Sarah Thomas (setho2@wm.edu)
MATERIAL CULTURE, INSTITUTIONAL HISTORY, ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY
I am a public-facing historian of early American material culture. I work for the Lemon Project, where I research African Americans at William & Mary from 1693 through the 20th century. I also teach the history of Williamsburg through a material culture lens.
Rachel Walker (walkerr@tncc.edu)
EARLY AMERICAN STUDIES
Woodie Walker (walkerwl2@mymail.vcu.edu)
NATIVE AMERICAN ORAL HISTORIES with the Rappahannock Tribe focused on 20th century legal recognition
Zhongda Wang (zhongda925@live.cn)
EARLY AMERICAN POLITICAL CULTURE; POPULAR CULTURE HISTORY IN REVOLUTIONARY ERA
Holly White (hnstevens@wm.edu)
AGE, CHILDHOOD, YOUTH, GENDER, FAMILY, LAW, EARLY AMERICA
Gwendolyn White (gkw-va@comcast.net)
18TH CENTURY CHESAPEAKE REGION, INDENTURED SERVANTS, ORPHANS, SOCIAL HISTORY, PLANTATION LIFE
Chris Whitehead (ctw2cs@virginia.edu)
INDIGENOUS KINSHIP
DIGITAL HUMANITIES
Douglas Winiarski (dwiniars@richmond.edu)
RELIGION, POPULAR CULTURE, NATIVE AMERICANS, MATERIAL CULTURE, NEW ENGLAND
Brendan Wolfe (bwolfe@virginia.edu)
VIRGINIA HISTORY, precolonial, Virginia Indians, colonial period, Revolution and early republic, slavery, African American history, gender and race, Atlantic world, early modern Spain
Karin Wulf (kawulf@wm.edu)
Peighton Young (youngpl2@vcu.edu)
THE CULTURAL PRACTICES AND BEHAVIORS of enslaved African Americans in early Virginia.
Cecily Zander (czz5162@psu.edu)
I study the Regular Army on America’s frontiers (1835-1885), asking how soldiers and officers envisioned the empire they were helping to create—and how the federal government managed the Regular Army as tool of imperialism and determined what types of work they were required to perform (warfare, exploration, and humanitarian aid).
Nadine Zimmerli (nizimmerli@wm.edu)
