Rachael studies civic identity and political formation in early American borderlands, with an emphasis on settler colonialism in the Western Great Lakes Region. In 2009, she graduated cum laude from the University of Wisconsin--Madison before going on to teach middle school history and English in high-needs schools in Oklahoma and Michigan. As recipient of the Clements Library 43 Foundation and Eastern Michigan University Opperman Fellowships, in 2021 she graduated with her Master's in history before beginning her studies at Princeton. Currently, she is constructing a dissertation project on overlapping sovereignties and legal cultures among Menominee, Ojibwe, and settler communities in territorial Wisconsin. She also co-organizes the Princeton American Indian and Indigenous Studies working group and the Colonial and Revolutionary Americas Workshop, while remaining passionate about equitable pedagogies and community engaged research.