Modern British History, Gender, and Culture

I am a historian of modern British history and culture, specializing in the study of nineteenth-century technology, visual and material culture, gender and sexual politics, and environmental history. My research and teaching explore a range of diverse topics, such as communication, crime, medicine and public health, Victorian media, gender and sexual politics, and law and popular culture. I also write and teach about mid-20th century British film and television, especially historical drama and documentary. I conduct research frequently in the UK, most recently in connection with two book projects, one on facial recognition and imposture in nineteenth-century law, the other on photography and chemical towns in northwestern UK. I have been a visiting scholar at UK institutions such as Birkbeck College (University of London), Cambridge University, Durham University, University of York, and DeMontfort University, and currently am in a public history/digital heritage research network with the Science Museum Group.

Academic Awards and Research Fellowships
Visiting Appointments
Publications
Media Interviews and Opinion
Talks and Invited Lectures
Conferences
Professional Roles
Wesleyan University
Students and Teaching
Community

 

Academic Awards and Research Fellowships

 

Visiting Appointments

 

Publications

Monographs

Articles

Book Chapters

Works (Articles & Book Chapters) in Progress

Book and Film Reviews

 

Media Interviews and Opinion

 

Talks and Invited Lectures

  • Plenary lecture, Mid-Atlantic Conference on British Studies, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, April 18, 2020 (postponed to 2022). 
  • “The Tichborne Trial in the Victorian Visual Imagination,” Stedman Memorial Plenary Lecture,Midwest Victorian Studies Association (MVSA) annual meeting, Loyola University, Chicago, Ill. (May 21, 2021). 
  • Yale Center for British Art “Art in Context” Gallery Talk, “The Tichborne Impostor: Print Culture, Visual Law, and the Reinvention of Self in the Victorian World,” (January 28, 2020).  
  • Beinecke Library Visiting Scholars Research Brownbag Lunch Presentation, Yale University (January 27, 2020).  
  • Speaker, “Relating Difference(s): Migrating Subjects, Inter-Cultural Exchanges, Literary Formations”International Symposium, University of Trento (Italy): “British Baronet – or Australian Outlaw? Inter-cultural Exchanges, Narratives of Difference, and Contested Identities in the Celebrated Tichborne Claimant Affair” (March 21–22, 2019).   
  • Keynote, “Cultural Histories of Air and Illness” conference, University of Warwick (UK), “Dangerous Exposures: Work and Waste in the Victorian Chemical Trade” (June 7–9, 2018). 
  • Invited speaker, The Mellon-Sawyer Seminar, University of Southern California, “Picturing the Past: The Nineteenth-Century” (March 20, 2017). 
  • Invited speaker, Modern British History seminar, Columbia University (February 23, 2017). 
  • Invited speaker, Paul Mellon Art Centre, London: “Humphrey Jennings’ ‘Pandaemonium’” (November 30, 2016). 
  • Invited speaker,Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape (South Africa), “Contemporary History and Humanities” (October 18, 2016). 
  • Public lecture, Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities (UK), “Picturing Modernization: Vision, Modernity, and the Technological Image in Humphrey Jennings’s ‘Pandaemonium’” (March 9, 2016). 
  • Plenary lecture, Institute of Advanced Studies, The University of Western Australia, “The Photograph from Wagga Wagga That Changed British Law” (May 28, 2015). 
  • Invited speaker, Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University, “New Visual and Material Approaches to the Study of Global Language” (May 19, 2015). 
  • Invited speaker, “Victorian Comic Images, Law and Social Order,” Victoria and Albert Museum (London) (May 13, 2014). 
  • Invited speaker, “‘The Biggest Man in England’: Photographic Celebrity,” Department of History of Art, University of York (England) (May 12, 2014). 
  • Invited speaker, “The BAAS and British Visual Culture,” Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge (UK) (May 8, 2014). 
  • Invited speaker, “Caricature and the Social Order: Reading Popular Prints, 1850-1880,” Literature and Cultural History Research Seminar, Liverpool John Moore University (March 18, 2014). 
 

Conferences

Conference Participant

    • Presenter, Lewis Walpole Library/Yale Law School mini-conference: “Trial by Media: The Queen Caroline Affair (1820)” (October 4, 2019). 
    • Panelist, Past and Present conference, University of Birmingham (May 30–31, 2018). 
    • Panelist, Mass Observation’s Anniversary Conference, University of Sussex (UK) (July 10–11, 2017).  
    • Presenter, Department of History and Program in Women, Gender, and Sexuality, Johns Hopkins University, Conference in Honor Judith Walkowitz (April 10–11, 2015). 
    • Presenter, Fulbright Scholars Forum, University of Glasgow (Scotland) (July 4–6, 2014). 
    • Presenter, North American Council on British Studies Conference, “Field of Vision: Visual Culture and Modern British History” (November 12–14, 2010).   
    • Panelist, Bard Music Festival, “Elgar and His World: The Composer and His Laboratory” (August 17–19, 2007).   
     

    Professional Roles

    Professional Associations

    • American Historical Association
    • North American Conference on British Studies
    • Victorian Studies Association

    Professional Service

    • Member, Undergraduate Essay Prize Committee (Chair, 2019-20), North American Conference on British Studies (2017–2020). 
    • Scholarly Advisor and contributing author to Trial by Media: The Queen Caroline Affair at the Yale Library, in partnership with the Lewis Walpole Library for the creation of an extensive online resource to mark the bicentennial of the Queen Caroline Divorce Trial. 
    • Assisted with review of applications for the annual Law and Humanities Interdisciplinary Junior Scholars Workshop, University of Pennsylvania (2015).
    • Vice President, Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, representing Wesleyan University (2014–present).

    Research Networks

    • British Studies Reading Group, NYC (2018-present).
    • Member, “Thinking Public Humanities,” Whitney Humanities Center, Yale University, a multi-year project convening specialists in the inter-related areas of Public Humanities, Documentary Studies, Museum Studies, Digital Humanities, Environmental History and Public History to discuss, hone and articulate a body of principles in public-facing projects. 
     

    Wesleyan University

    Campus Service & Departmental Talks

      • Chair, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, 2008-09; 2011-13; 2018-19, Spring 2021). Participated in program’s core curriculum and conducted negotiations with the administration leading to the program’s first dedicated line, at the senior level.
      • Organizer, History Department Annual Distinguished Lecture with Prof. Linda Colley (October 17, 2018).
      • Panelist, with Peter Rutland and Alice Kelly, “Scotland Votes…The End of the UK?” Forum sponsored by the History Department and Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life (September 16, 2014). 
      • Organizer, History Department Annual Distinguished Lecture:  Prof. Natalie Davis, Princeton Professor of History Emerita (October 17, 2013); Prof. Vanessa Schwartz, Professor of History and Art History, USC (November 2012). 
       

      Students and Teaching

      Graduate Seminars

      • Grant writing workshop, University of Southern California, Visual Studies Research Institute (October 3, 2020). 
      • Book publishing workshop for graduate students and recent postdocs, Science History Institute, Philadelphia, PA (October 2020). 

      Undergraduate Courses Taught at Wesleyan

      Seminars
      Lecture-based Courses

      Courses Taught Outside of Wesleyan (Caltech, Harvey Mudd College)

      • Visualizing Nation and Empire: History of 20th century British Documentary Film
       

      Community

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