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I am a community engaged historian, which means that I teach the history of colonial and Revolutionary America with local history resources. My students study history, but they also work on strategic projects with local museums, historical sites and libraries to enrich their educational programming or otherwise support their work. As the Director of the McCormick Center for the Study of the American Revolution, I work closely with students to develop research projects and internships that engage them with New York State history in museums, libraries, state parks, and other non-profit educational institutions. I want Siena students to learn history and make history.

Degree Program University
Ph.D. American History Georgetown University
M.A. American History Boston College
B.A. History Emory University

My Siena Experience

My Teaching Philosophy

Offer students a diversity of learning experiences that will encourage them to reach their fullest potential not only as learners but as citizens.

What I Love About Siena

I appreciate the College's commitment to academic community engagement and its support of the partnerships that my students and I have forged with nearly a dozen local historic sites including Saratoga National Historical Park.

My Favorite Courses to Teach

American Revolution
Colonial America
New York State History 

My Professional Experience

Year Title Organization
2019 - Now Professor of History Siena College
2008 - 2019 Associate Professor Siena College
2004 - 2008 Assistant Professor Arizona State University at the West Campus
2003 - 2004 NHPRC Post Doctoral Fellow in Historical and Documentary Editing at the Race and Slavery Petitions Project University of North Carolina
2002 - 2003 Visiting Assistant Professor Desales University

Articles & Book Reviews

  • The Delinquency of George Holcomb: Civil Disobedience in the Upper Hudson River Valley, 1812
    The Hudson River Valley Review
    2017
  • Conscription, Charity, and Citizenship in the Early Republic: The Shaker Campaign for Alternative Service
    Church History, vol. 85
    March, 2016
  • 'A Documentary History of African-American Freedom: An Introduction to the Race, Slavery and Free Blacks Microfilm Collection'
    Slavery and Abolition: A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies, vol. 30
    December, 2009

Awards & Distinctions

  • The Japan Residency Fellowship
    Category: Teaching-Research
    Organization of American Historians and the Japanese Association for American Studies (JAAS), 2023
  • Jerome P. Walton Excellence in Teaching Award-Finalist
    Category: Teaching
    Siena College, 2018
  • Jerome P. Walton Excellence in Teaching Award-Finalist
    Category: Teaching
    Siena College, 2017
  • Martha Washington Woman of History Award
    Category: Teaching-Research-Service
    Washington's Headquarters State Historic Site, 2016
  • Received the Trustco Bank Award for Excellence. The Trustco Bank recognition series honors members of the Siena community for their distinct achievements.
    Category: Teaching
    Trustco Bank, 2016
  • Teacher of the Year Award
    Category: Teaching
    Siena College's History Club, 2016
  • The Trustco Bank recognition series honors members of the Siena community for their distinct achievements.
    Category: Teaching
    Trustco Bank, 2011
  • Teacher of the Year Award
    Category: Teaching
    Siena College's History Club, 2010

Books & Book Chapters

  • New York's Burned Over District: A Documentary History
    Cornell University Press
    2023
  • Utopian Imaginings: Saving the Future in the Present

    2022
  • Companion to American Religious History
    Wiley-Blackwell
    2021
  • Hirelings: African American Workers and Free Labor in Early Maryland
    Cornell University Press
    2011
  • The Early Republic: People and Perspectives
    ABC-CLIO
    2008

Presentations

  • Teaching History Amidst the History Wars: A Conversation with Secondary School History Teachers
    2022
    Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, New Orleans, Louisiana
  • Canal Conundrums: Research 200 Years of New York State Canal History
    2019
    Researching New York Conference, Albany, New York
  • Teaching History with Science and Theater: An Interdisciplinary Research Venture between Siena College and the Underground Railroad History Project of the Capital Region
    2018
    Researching New York Conference, Albany, New York
  • Citizen Shaker
    2015
    Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, Raleigh, North Carolina
  • NEH Workshops for Teachers in New York State History: Shakers, Adirondack Great Camps, Hudson Valley Industrialization
    2014
    New York State History Association, Poughkeepsie, New York
  • The Anti-War Activism of the Washington Benevolent Society
    2014
    Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • Mapping Historic Albany Rural Cemetery
    July, 2012
    Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, Baltimore, Maryland
  • The Washington Benevolent Society and Draft Evasion in the War of 1812
    June, 2012
    New York State History Association, Buffalo, New York
  • George Holcomb's War: Draft Evasion and the War of 1812
    November, 2011
    Researching New York Conference, Albany, New York