Bio

Fields of Interest: Colonial America, Early U.S. Republic, Colonial Latin America, Age of Revolutions, International History, Social and Cultural History

Education: M.A., 2007, College of William and Mary, Early American and U.S. History B.A., 2005, Saint Olaf College, History and American Studies, magna cum laude

Field Exams: Early American and U.S. History to 1815 (with Paul Mapp)
U.S. History, 1815-Present (with Charles McGovern)
Colonial Latin America to 1826 (with Kris Lane)
U.S. Foreign Relations, 1776-Present (with Hiroshi Kitamura)

Classes Taught: U.S. History to 1877

Conference Presentations:  “Speculating on Revolution: The 1806 Leander Expedition and Popular Visions of South American Liberation in the Early U.S. Republic,” Consortium on the Revolutionary Era, Charleston, South Carolina, February 2009

Awards:  Fulbright Fellow, Venezuela, 2010-2011

Dissertation: “Spirited Enterprises: The United States and the Emancipation of Latin America, 1790-1823” (working title) - advised by Paul Mapp.

My dissertation explores the foundations of U.S.-Latin American relations in the decades before the promulgation of the Monroe Doctrine, by focusing on the commercial, political, diplomatic, and
ideological ties between U.S. citizens and Spanish Americans living in the Province of Caracas and the first republics of Venezuela.  My project is hinged by Francisco de Miranda’s failed 1806 Leander
expedition but also investigates U.S. designs for the emancipation of South America; the political elite’s ideological justifications and opposition to the exportation of revolution abroad; popular visions of free trade and the struggle for hemispheric liberty in the U.S. and Venezuela; the practice of popular politics in the Early Republic; and the influence of Spanish Americans on the international relations of
the young U.S.