Graduate Students

Research Interests

I study religion and culture in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century United States. I have a strong interest in narratives that complicate the longstanding academic emphasis on Protestantism and showcase the religious diversity of American communities. My dissertation explores nineteenth-century Spiritualism and the movement's implications for science, religion, and public morality in the U.S.

Dissertation

Phantom Luminaries: Spiritualism and Paranormal Investigators in the Age of Disruption

Education

M.A., History, University of Rochester, 2017
M.A., History, Distinction, Villanova University, 2016
B.A., History (Highest Distinction, Christopher Lasch Fellow in American History), Religion (Honors in Research, Highest Distinction), University of Rochester, 2014

Selected Publications

• Co-author with Erin Francisco Opalich, Madeline Ullrich, and Alexander J. Zawacki. “A Tale of Three Disciplines: Considering the (Digital) Future of the Mid-doc Fellowship in Graduate Programs.” In "The Digital Futures of Graduate Study in the Humanities," ed. Simon Appleford, Gabriel Hankins, and Anouk Lang. Forthcoming, University of Minnesota Press.
• Contributor to "Religion and the American West: Belief, Violence, and Resilience from 1800 to Today," ed. Jessica Lauren Nelson. New-York Historical Society and the Eiteljorg Museum of Native Americans and Western Art. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, anticipated Sept. 2023.
• Contributor, with Jonathan Coopersmith, Kathleen Comerford, Arthur Daemmrich, Damayanthie Eluwawalage, Stephen Thomas Hatez, Sally Yi, et al., to “Historians’ Thoughts on the OSTP RFI for an AI National Strategy,” ed. Coopersmith, public comment on “Request for Information; National Priorities for Artificial Intelligence,” Office of Science and Technology Policy, Federal Register, Document Citation 88 FR 34194, Document Number 2023-11346, July 7, 2023.
• Principal Investigator, The Hill Cumorah Legacy Project. Rochester Institute of Technology Department of History, 2022. 
• “Notes on Abner Woolman.” Quaker History 111, no. 2 (Fall 2022): 30–40. 
• Review of "Generations of Reason: A Family’s Search for Meaning in Post-Newtonian England" by Joan L. Richards. Religious Studies Review 48, no. 3 (Sept. 2022): 402–03. 
• Review of "John E. Fetzer and the Quest for the New Age" by Brian C. Wilson. Reading Religion, Sept. 16, 2021. 
• Co-author with Andreína Soto Segura. “Writing History Among the Tombstones: Notes from Har Hasetim.” The Graduate History Review 8, No. 1 (2019): 15–30. https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/ghr/article/view/18763.
• “Abner Woolman’s Colonial World: Quaker Politics and Literature Before the American Revolution.” Quaker History 107, No. 2 (Fall 2018): 19–64. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1353/qkh.2018.0007.
• “Seminar in American Religion: American Jesuits and the World…” Bulletin of the British Association for the Study of Religions No. 131 (Nov. 2017): 33–34
• “The Center of the Mormon World: The Hill Cumorah Pageant.” Sacred Matters, August 30, 2017.
• “Divine Dimes: My Adventures Down the Rabbit Hole of Religious Pulp Literature.” Common-place 16, No. 3 (Summer 2016). https://searchworks.stanford.edu/articles/31h__116200111.
• Podcast Interviews. The Religious Studies Project, May 2017–Present.
• “The Resistance Files: How to Fight Censorship in the Age of Trump.” Historista (Megan Kate Nelson.com), April 6, 2017.
• Review of "After Appomattox: Military Occupation and the Ends of War" by Gregory P. Downs.
  Past Tense: Graduate Review of History 4, No. 1 (Spring 2016): 70–71.
• Review of "The Ordeal of the Reunion: A New History of Reconstruction" by Mark Wahlgren Summers.Essays in History 57 (2015).
• "The Untold Stories of Mormonism Exposed: Material Culture, Dime Novels, and Mormonism in American Society." Concept: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Graduate Studies 38 (2015): 18-45.
• "Candid Ken and the Cuban Crisis: Senator Kenneth Keating, the Red Menace, and the Missile Crisis of 1962." Proceedings of the National Conference on Undergraduate Research 2014 (2014): 105–115.
• "Revisiting Joseph Campbell’s The Power of Myth." Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies 5, No. 1 (Spring 2014): 72–88.
• "The Joy of Piracy: Ned Buntline, Mark Twain, And The Black Avenger Of The Spanish Main." Proceedings of the National Conference on Undergraduate Research 2013 (2013): 574–582.
• "Giving Us Courage: The Political Rhetoric of Franklin Delano Roosevelt." Proceedings of the National Conference on Undergraduate Research 2012 (2012): 570–577.

Teaching

• Instructor of Record, “Digital History,” undergraduate course, Rochester Institute of Technology, Spring 2022.
• Instructor of Record, “Contested Futures: Religion and Science in the United States,” undergraduate course, University of Rochester, Fall 2021
• Instructor: “Cults, Chakras, & Crunchy Granola: New Age Religions in America,” 4.0-credit summer course, University of Rochester, July 2019. 
• Teaching Assistantships: “Hitler’s Germany,” Prof. Tom Fleischman, Spring 2019.
• Fall 2018: Teaching Assistant for: "Wives, Women, & Wenches: Women in American History," Prof. Brianna Theobald, University of Rochester, Dept. of History.
• December 1, 2016: Guest Lecturer for: “Anthropology of Tourism,” Visiting Prof. Magdalena Banaszkiewicz, University of Rochester, Dept. of Political Science.
• March 16, 2016: Guest Lecturer for: “The Renaissance Atlantic,” Prof. Cristina Soriano, Villanova University, Dept. of History. 

Honors

• 2018 David T. Kearns Professional Development Diversity Travel Award, University of Rochester Kearns Center.
• 2019–21 Andrew W. Mellon Digital Humanities Fellowship.
• 2018 Parliament of the World's Religions Student Scholarship.
• 2017 Knapp Family Foundation Travel Grant for the Association for Jewish Studies 49th Annual Conference.
• 2016–18 Slattery Fellowship, University of Rochester.
• 2016 Villanova Graduate Studies Travel Award.
• 2014–16 Villanova University Tuition Scholarships.
• 2014 Elected to Phi Beta Kappa Society.
• 2014 Graduating Student Marshal at the 164^th Commencement Exercises, University of Rochester.
• 2013 Beinecke Scholarship from the Sperry Fund.

Bio

• I grew up in the Hudson Valley north of New York City. Over the years I've volunteered for several political campaigns.
• I am exploring both academic and non-academic careers in which I can use my research training.
• What I like best about Rochester is Rochester's library resources — physical and digital collections, research opportunities, professional workshops, digital media equipment, and archives — are extraordinary. Collaboration between our faculty and students and the River Campus librarians make this a great place to study history.