I study the cultural, legal, and political history of the United States in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. My dissertation project examines the Civil War pension system, a sprawling and contested federal program, and the questions it raises about disability and dependency, work and welfare, and the reach of the state in late nineteenth century America. 

I am also interested in public history, including as a researcher for the Princeton and Slavery Project and as an instructor for Princeton's Prison Teaching Initiative/NJ-STEP. In 2016-17 I also am serving in the Graduate School as Grant Manager/University Administrative Fellow for the National Endowment for the Humanities Next Generation Ph.D. Planning Grant. 

Prior to Princeton, I attended New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study (B.A., magna cum laude, 2007) and the City University of New York, Brooklyn College (M.A., 2012), where I wrote my thesis on space and sentiment in Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery.

I am based in Philadelphia, PA.