Sign in Subscribe

Vita

Academic Employment

Northeastern University

  • Dean’s Associate Professor of History & Africana Studies, June 2021 - present
  • Associate Director of Public History, June 2021 - present

University of New Hampshire

  • Associate Professor of English and American Studies, August 2020 - June 2021
  • Faculty Fellow for Equity and Inclusion, August 2020 - June 2021
  • Assistant Professor of American Studies, July 2017 - July 2020

College of Wooster

  • Assistant Professor of History, College of Wooster, August 2011 - June 2017

Education

University of Massachusetts Amherst
  • Ph.D., African American Studies, September 2011
  • Certificate, Feminist Studies, February 2011
  • Dissertation: “Intellect, Liberty, Life: Women’s Activism and the Politics of Black Education in Antebellum America” (Chair: Manisha Sinha)
  • 2012 Recipient of the Esther M.A. Terry Award for Distinguished Dissertation
Humboldt University Berlin, Germany
  • Certificate, British Studies, June 2006
University of California, Los Angeles
  • M.A., African American Studies, December 2005
  • B.A., English (cum laude, College & Departmental Honors), September 2003

Selected Publications

Book
In Pursuit of Knowledge: Black Women and Educational Activism in Antebellum America (New York: New York University Press, 2019).

  • Winner of the 2020 Mary Kelley Prize from the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic
  • Winner of the 2020 Outstanding Book Award from the History of Education Society
  • Winner of the 2021 American Educational Research Association Division F New Scholar’s Book Award
  • Winner of the 2021 Outstanding Book Award from the American Educational Research Association

Journal Articles
“Full and Impartial Justice”: Robert Morris and the Equal School Rights Movement in Massachusetts,” New England Quarterly vol. 95, no. 2 (June 2022): 155-191.

“Searching for Sarah: Black Girlhood, Education, and the Archive,” History of Education Quarterly vol. 60, no. 1 (February 2020): 73-85.

“Love & Justice: African American Women, Education, and Protest in Antebellum New England,” Journal of Social History, vol. 52, no. 3 (2019): 652-676.

“Building The Future: White Women, African American Education, and Civic Inclusion in Antebellum Ohio,” Journal of the Early Republic vol. 37, no. 1 (Spring 2017): 117-145.

“Be Your Own Man: Student Activism and the Birth of Black Studies at Amherst College, 1965-1972,” New England Quarterly vol. 89, no. 2 (June 2016): 286-322.

Public History
Newburyport Black History Initiative, Interpretive Sign Project, Newburyport, MA. 2022-present. Co-founded with Geordie Vining and Cyd Raschke. https://www.cityofnewburyport.com/planning-development/newburyport-black-history-initiative

“Let None Be Excluded: The Origins of Equal School Rights in Salem,” Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA. April 2022-April 2024. Co-curated and co-written with Dan Lipcan. https://www.pem.org/exhibitions/let-none-be-excluded-the-origins-of-equal-school-rights-in-salem

Public Scholarship
“Black Women Have Shaped Politics in Boston for Centuries,” Washington Post (Made By History section), February 10, 2021. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/02/10/black-women-have-shaped-politicsboston-centuries/

“Robert Morris Was a Black Bostonian Who Fought for Freedom. Why Don’t We Have a Statue of Him?” Cognoscenti (WBUR’s Online Opinion Page), July 9, 2020. https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/07/09/black-bostonians-george-floyd-statueemancipation-memorial-robert-morris-kabria-baumgartner

“Abolition, Suffrage, and the Activism of Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin,” Historic New England Magazine (Fall 2019): 15-18.

Selected Fellowships & Grants

  • Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Implementation Grant, 2023-26
  • NEH-American Antiquarian Society Long-Term Fellowship, 2022-23
  • Spencer Foundation Small Grant, 2021-22
  • NEH-Massachusetts Historical Society Long-Term Fellowship, 2020-2021
  • National Park Service/Organization of American Historians Grant, Project: “African Americans in Essex County, Massachusetts,” 2018-2020
  • Francis E. Malamy Fellowship, Phillips Library/Peabody Essex Museum, 2018-19
  • Ruth R. & Alyson R. Miller Fellowship, Massachusetts Historical Society, 2018
  • National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2016-17
  • Peterson Fellowship, American Antiquarian Society, 2015-16
  • Research Grant, Massachusetts Historical Society/Great Lakes College Association, Boston Summer Seminar, 2015
  • Mellon Program in African American History Postdoctoral Fellowship, Library Company of Philadelphia, 2014-15
  • Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, 2010-11