I am a historian of United States labor and working-class history. My research explores interactions between workers and business, as well as the government bureaucracies and corporate interests that inform these relationships. I situate my work within the fields of ethnic studies, labor history, critical race theory, gender studies, and Indigeneity and explore the role that working-class political activism has played in shaping the outcomes of local, national, and global movements for social justice. My teaching and scholarly interests include cultural history and carceral studies, economic and industrial relations theory, the histories of masculinity and sexuality, migration studies, settler colonialism, and the history of politics and American capitalism from the mid-19th through the 21st Century.
Education
Ph.D., History, University of Wisconsin–Madison
M.A., University of Wisconsin–Madison
Field
U.S./Comparative and Transnational Labor and Social Movement Histories
MA Title
“Beyond Scarface: Marielitos at Fort McCoy and the Specter of the Criminalized Refugee”
Dissertation/Book Manuscript Title
“Paper Dreams: Working-Class Cultures and Political Drift in the Fox River Valley, 1850s-1950s”
Selected Publications
- “The Cuban Refugee Criminal: Media Reporting and the Production of a Popular Image,” International Journal of Cuban Studies 11, no.1 (Summer 2019): 61-83.
- “Dangerous Marielitos: Local Wisconsin Newspapers and the Proliferation of a Negative Representation,” International Journal of Cuban Studies 10, no.1 (Spring 2018): 30-52.
Selected Awards
- Frank Zeidler Academic Award, Best Original Research in Wisconsin Labor and Working-Class History, Graduate Category, Wisconsin Labor History Society, 2020.
- Baensch Prize for Excellence Wisconsin History, History Department, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 2018.
- Exceptional Service in Teaching Award, History Department, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 2018.
- Distinctive Scholastic Achievement Award, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 2006.
Professional Affiliations
- American Historical Association
- Labor and Working-Class History Association
- Midwestern History Association
- Organization of American Historians
- Oral History Association
- Urban History Association
- Western History Association
- Wisconsin Labor History Society
Courses Taught as Instructor
- History 154 – Who is an American?
- History 201 – Historian’s Craft: Histories of Hope Movement and Justice
- History 201 – Historian’s Craft: From Hoboes to Homelessness, A History of Transience in the United States
- History 245 – Chicana and Latina History: Comparative and Transnational Working-Class Lives