Academic Interests
20th Century American History
Environmental History
Carceral State History
Immigration History
Labor History
American Catholic History
Anthropocene/Plantationocene/Cthulucene Studies
Food Studies
Classroom and Online Pedagogy
Dissertation Project
My dissertation project, "Caging Cultivators: Carceral Labor Landscapes in American Agriculture during World War II," examines farms that functioned like prisons in the American Midwest between 1942 and 1945. These farms used incarcerated Japanese Americans, Mexican and Jamaican migrants, and war prisoners from Italy and Germany as cultivators. They often worked the same fields, sheds, and factories while living in shared or similar environments of barracks, checkpoints, and wire fences. American agriculture depended on immobile laborers and landscapes designed to ensure their immobility. Yet while unfree, farm laborers often worshiped with local faith communities and received ministries from Catholic and Protestant clergy. Carceral cultivators occupied a multivalent place in rural farm communities, alternately existential enemies, invaluable instruments, racial outsiders, and fellow faithful. My dissertation, then, combines sources from federal and state agencies, local press, and religious communities to explore wartime carceral agriculture and understand its impact on laborers, communities, and the state in the postwar period.
Background
MA American History, Saint Louis University, 2018
BA History, minors in German & Catholic Studies, summa cum laude, Aquinas College, 2016
Semester Study in German, University of Tübingen, Spring 2016
Positions Held
- Adjunct History Faculty, Saint Louis Community College, Fall 2019-Summer 2020
- Research Assistant for Dr. Flannery Burke and the Missouri Council for History Education, Spring 2020
- Instructor of Record, Saint Louis University, Fall 2019
- Research Assistant for Dr. Lorri Glover, Saint Louis University, Academic Year 2018-2019
- Teaching Assistant for Dr. Thomas Madden, Spring 2018
- Teaching Assistant for Fr. Steven Schoenig, Fall 2017
- Research Assistant for Dr. Katrina Thompson Moore, Saint Louis University, Academic Year 2016-2017
Courses Taught
- Saint Louis Community College
- HST 128 - Western History from 1500 to Present (FA 19 & SU 20)
- HST 115 - Ancient and Medieval History to 1500 (SP 20 & SU 20)
- HST 102 - United States History from 1865 to the Present (SP 20)
- Saint Louis University
- HST 1120 - Origins of the Modern World, 1500-Present (FA 19)
Online Academic Writing and Projects
- "Beyond the 'Murder Hornet' Panic," Edge Effects, June 11, 2020. https://perma.cc/PA3K-ARFN.
- "FSA Teaching Tool" Site, created for the Missouri Council for History Education, April 2020. https://fsateachingtool.wordpress.com/.
- "Childlike Cultivators? Catholicism and Latinx Migrants in Chesterfield, Missouri, 1951-1965," Immigration and Ethnic History Society (IEHS) Graduate Student Blog, March 9, 2020. https://perma.cc/MAK3-53BS.
Book Reviews
- Review of Managed Migrations: Growers, Farmworkers, and Border Enforcement in the Twentieth Century, by Cristina Salinas, H-Net, H-Environment, June 22, 2020. https://perma.cc/UG2V-MJXP.
- Review of Ellen Browning Scripps: New Money & American Philanthropy, by Molly McClain, American Nineteenth Century History, 20, no. 1 (2019): 86-88.
Recent Presentations & Workshops
- “Changes in the Land: Colonizing the Americas with Animals.” Remote Guest Lecture for Middle School Students. St. Louis, Missouri, April 22, 2020.
- “When Potato Fields were Prisons: Unfree Agriculture in McHenry County during World War II.” Invited Lecture for the Highland Park Historical Society. Highland Park, Illinois, April 5, 2020. [Moved to Zoom due to COVID-19]
- “When Potato Fields were Prisons: Unfree Agriculture in McHenry County during World War II.” Invited Lecture for the McHenry County Historical Society’s Sampler Lecture. Union, Illinois, April 2020. [Cancelled due to COVID-19]
- “Caging Cantaloupe Fields: Carceral Foodscapes in Chesterfield, Missouri, 1940-1973.” Paper prepared for American Society for Environmental History Annual Conference. Ottawa, Ontario, CA, March 2020. [cancelled due to COVID-19]
- “Caging Potato Fields: Carceral Agriculture in Marengo, Illinois, during World War II.” Paper presented at the 2019 Midwestern History Association Conference. Grand Rapids, MI, May 2019.
- “Revisited: Migrant Labor and Unfree Agriculture in Chesterfield, Missouri – 1940-1965.” Invited Guest Speaker Presentation at Saint Louis University Graduate Research Symposium. St. Louis, MO, April 2019.
- “SLU Food and Environment Strategy Session.” Participant in interdisciplinary summit on food and environment issues in the St. Louis region. St. Louis, MO, December 2018.
- “Whose Education? Disentangling Sex Education, Compulsory Schooling, and Subsidiarity, 1763-2017.” Paper presented at the 2018 World History Association Conference. Milwaukee, WI, June 2018.
- “Migrant Labor, Carceral Agriculture, and Catholic Infantilization in Chesterfield, Missouri – 1940-1965.” Paper presented at Saint Louis University Graduate Research Symposium. St. Louis, MO, April 2018. Second Place Cash Award for Humanities Paper Presentation.
- “Historicizing Emo Music and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.” Panel presentation with Saint Louis University Theatre Department. St. Louis, MO, April 2018.
- “Migrant Labor, Carceral Agriculture, and Catholic Infantilization in Chesterfield, Missouri – 1940-1965.” Paper presented at Saint Louis University Phi Alpha Theta Conference. St. Louis, MO, April 2018.
- “Latino Migrants and Catholic Infantilization in Chesterfield, Missouri – 1940-1965.” Paper presented at the 2018 Missouri Conference on History. Jefferson City, MO, March 2018.
- “Endnote and Zotero: Digital Source Management in History Research.” Workshop facilitated at the American History Forum, Saint Louis University. Saint Louis, MO, October 2017.
- “Toward Abundant History.” Paper presented at the 2017 Missouri Conference on History. Springfield, MO, March 2017.
- “Teaching Conservative Humanism.” Project presented at Fall 2015 Insignis Honors Event. Grand Rapids, MI, December 2015.
Awards
- American History Forum Fund Research Grant, December 2019
- SLU History Department 1818 Travel Grant, April 2018
- SLU History Department 1818 Travel Grant, April 2017
- Outstanding Graduate Award, Aquinas College History Department, 2016
Service
- History Department Representative, Graduate Student Association, Saint Louis University, 2019-2020
- Coordinator, American History Forum, Saint Louis University, 2018-2019