Department of History

I see myself as a broadly-trained US historian with interests in social, cultural, labor, and economic history. I've taught undergraduate courses spanning the full gamut of American History--from the American Revolution to the Cold War--and enjoy keeping up with new research across the US field. At IU, I work as a specialist in the US Survey. That is, I teach the US History survey every year and support high school teachers across the state as they teach this course in high school. My favorite upper-level courses to teach mirror my research interests in labor, economic and religious history. These include Religion and American Politics, The Rise an Fall of an American Welfare State, the Social History of Industrial America, and the History of US Immigration and Citizenship. 

My current scholarly expertise revolves around the Social Gospel movement and the early twentieth century labor movement. My book manuscript explores the rivalry between the labor movement and the chuches for authority over the imagined "Christian nation." I've published articles and book chapters on the Social Gospel movement, the "Religious Left," and the history of working class Christianity. I edited The Pew and the Picket Line: Christianity and the American Working Class (University of Illinois Press, 2015). For my next project, I am interested in Henry George's campaigns and the debates of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century over fair property taxes.

About half of my work in the IU History department involves bridging the gap between high school- and college-level history. I visit high schools across the state and learn from teachers about where students are thriving and how we can leverage the resources of the university to better support their students' preparation for college. I develop updated curricular resources for teaching the Survey in high school, but I also strive to bring some of the best teaching methods developed at the secondary level into the college classroom.