Education

B.A. History, Fairmont State University 
M.A. Historical Studies, University of Maryland Baltimore County 
Ph.D., History of Science, Technology, & Environment, University of South Carolina 

Bio

I joined the Department of History in the Fall of 2017 after earning my Ph.D. in the History of Science, Technology, & Environment under the direction of Drs. Ann Johnson and Allison Marsh. I teach a variety of undergraduate courses in thematic areas such as the history of science and technology, history of crime and punishment, and the history of sport using role-immersion to increase student engagement. My teaching has been recognized by the History Department’s John A. & Annie Rice Excellence in Teaching Award, the Office of Student Disability Services Two Thumbs Up Award, the Dean’s Office Undergraduate Teaching Award, and the Center for Teaching Excellence’s Garnet Apple Award for Teaching Innovation. I have also been nominated for the Mungo Undergraduate Teaching Award.

My research primarily focuses on maritime technologies in the United States in the nineteenth century. In particular, I am interested in the scientific policy and practice of the United States Lighthouse Establishment between the creation of the United States Constitution and the American Civil War. My research has won fellowships from the Consortium for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine; the Mercurians special interest group of the Society for the History of Technology, the Linda Hall Library, the Rakow Research Library at the Corning Museum of Glass, and the Institute for Humane Studies. My scholarship has reached international audiences most recently in The Northern Mariner / Le marin du nord, The Journal of Glass Studies, and the South Carolina Historical Magazine. I have been an invited speaker at the Portland Greater Landmarks in Maine and the National Lighthouse Museum on Staten Island in New York to share my research on maritime technologies. I am a member of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), the History of Science Society (HSS), the North American Society for Oceanic History (NASOH), and the National Maritime Historical Society.

ACTIVITIES

Over the past fifteen months I have organized a conference panel for the Omohundro Institute’s “For 2026” conference series and co-organized a conference on the SC REACH Act in collaboration with Clemson University for the College of Arts and Sciences Founding Documents Initiative. I am also editing a textbook on America’s founding documents with the University of South Carolina Press and directing an Honors College thesis on the origins of the Second Amendment.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

 “Rewriting the Rules: Game-based Learning for Affective and Cognitive Student Engagement in an Undergraduate History Course.” International Journal of Role-Playing (Forthcoming Summer 2025). Secondary author to Rachel Hoke.

“A Fate Worse than Famine: The Tragedy of the Brig St. John.” Wreck & Rescue no. 3 (Fall 2023): 23-27.

“Captain Winslow Lewis of Wellfleet: The Crown Prince of American Lighthouses,” Wreck & Rescue 23 no. 4 (Winter 2023): 21-24.

“Marine Observatories and Lighthouses,” Mainely History Podcast (September 26, 2022)

“The Fresnel Affair: Manufacturing, Technology Transfer, Republicanism, and the Adoption of the Fresnel Lighthouse Lens, 1819 – 1852,” The Northern Mariner / Le marin du nord XXVIII, no. 4 (Autumn 2018): 363-84.

“Seven Flags over Charleston Harbor: James M. Elford and the Quest for a Universal Maritime Signal Code,” South Carolina Historical Magazine 118, no. 2 (April 2017): 132-54.