Kayla P. Weisenberger
Ph.D. Student (ABD)
Advisor:
Dr. Joshua Piker
email:
[[kmpittman]]
Current Research:
Native American/Indigenous Peoples, Historical Memory, Race
Bio
Kayla P. Weisenberger is a fourth-year History PhD Candidate specializing in the history of Native American/Indigenous Peoples. Her research focuses on the processes of historical memory, race, gender, and class. Kayla’s scholarship reveals how William & Mary’s Brafferton Indian School and its Indigenous scholars have been both erased and evoked on campus since the university’s charter in 1693. This work centers Native peoples and their relationships with William & Mary through the past and at present.Kayla holds a B.A. in History from the University of Oklahoma, graduating in 2012 and an M.A. in History and Certificate in Public History from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, graduating in 2015. During her time at UMass, Kayla served as the Public History Administrative Assistant and interned with James Monroe’s Highland. She was also a founding member of UMass Amherst’s Military Memories: Documenting Veteran Experiences oral history project. Before resuming her graduate studies as a Ph.D. student at William & Mary in the fall of 2019, Kayla worked in various public history settings and served as the Director of Research and Interpretation at Wethersfield Historical Society located in Wethersfield, CT and the Director of Education at Historic Westville in Columbus, GA. She is the 2019 recipient of the Dr. William M. Kelso Graduate Fellowship in Early American Studies from William & Mary. Kayla has served as a digital apprentice for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture in support of the podcast Ben Franklin’s World.
