Sarah Donovan
Ph.D. Student (ABD)
Advisor:
Dr. Josh Piker
email:
[[sfdonovan]]
Current Research:
Early American Frontier, British/Irish Atlantic World, Extralegal Violence
Bio
Sarah Donovan received her B.A. in History from Lycoming College in 2017, an M.A. in History from SUNY Brockport in 2019, and an M.A. in History from William & Mary in 2020. Her dissertation entitled “Transplanted Whiteboys and Sons of Paxton: Patterns of Extralegal Violence in the British Atlantic World,” explores the transatlantic connections between violent groups of “boys” both along the Early American frontier and in Early Modern Ireland throughout the second half of the eighteenth century. Sarah’s research has been generously supported by the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon, the Huntington Library, the David Center for the American Revolution at the American Philosophical Society, and the Pennsylvania State Archives with the Pennsylvania Historical Association.As a Fall 2022 Teaching Fellow, Sarah taught a course entitled “Mobs, Rioters, and Violence in the Early Modern World,” during which she created a role-playing game called “Re-Drawing the Proclamation Line of 1763” that allowed students to engage with primary sources and historiographical arguments in new ways. Sarah is passionate about public history and served as a historical interpreter at the Genesee Country Village and Museum in Mumford, NY and as the 2019-2020 digital apprentice for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture in support of the Georgian Papers Programme. She also provided foundational research for the Pittsburgh, Virginia, exhibit at the Fort Pitt Museum in Pittsburgh, PA. Sarah currently serves as a Graduate Writing Consultant at William & Mary’s Graduate Writing Resources Center.
