About

I am a historian of the revolutionary Atlantic world, with a particular focus on the impact of the Haitian Revolution on the early United States. My current book manuscript focuses on the Haitian revolutionary diaspora – the thousands of enslaved and formerly enslaved people who were forced by their enslavers to leave revolutionary Saint-Domingue for places where slavery remained legal – and the subsequent efforts of diaspora members to seek freedom in the early U.S. Focusing on this diaspora expands our geographies of the Haitian Revolution and develops our understanding of the intra-American slave trade; in particular, it reveals the centrality of struggles over mobility to struggles over freedom in the revolutionary Atlantic world.

My research stems from twin interests: a deep interest in histories of revolution and resistance to oppression; and a fascination with how people in the past experienced and moved through the material world. Before coming to Bates, I held a predoctoral fellowship at the Carter G. Woodson Institute of African-American and African Studies at the University of Virginia, and taught classes on the Haitian Revolution and U.S. History at William & Mary.

When not teaching or researching, I enjoy exploring Maine on my bicycle, casting on a new knitting project, and playing DnD.

Education

Ph.D., William & Mary
M.A., William & Mary
M.A. (Hons), University of Glasgow