Personal Statement:
I am a PhD student with a commitment to pursuing interdisciplinary scholarship. My research interests focus on the development of gay and lesbian consumer culture in the late twentieth century United States. My proposed dissertation, titled Queer Bookstores and Backlash: Creating Queer Communities and Combatting Censorship in the United States 1919-2020, examines the development of queer publishing, queer bookstores, and government censorship of queer print media in the twentieth century United States. I am also interested in representations of gender and sexuality in twentieth century US literature, popular culture, and visual media. During my PhD, I have conducted oral history interviews with LGBTQ authors and booksellers, and have researched advertising, gay owned and operated businesses, and gay and lesbian reader engagement with OutWeek magazine between 1989 and 1991.
I have twice served as the instructor for the capstone course for UCSB’s Minor in Poverty, Inequality and Social Justice. I am passionate about mentoring students in their research, creation, and promotion of research projects (in the form of policy proposals, TED Talks, websites, podcast episodes, and pamphlets) that engage with important issues ranging from food security, to homelessness, to period poverty, to environmental racism. I will be teaching History 174Q again in Winter 2022 and Spring 2022.
My undergraduate dissertation examined anti-suffrage visual culture and gender anxieties in the Progressive Era. My MA dissertation analyzed female military recruitment posters, pin-ups, and anti-venereal disease posters in order to evaluate the extent to which images of female sexuality and femininity were used to police gender roles within the military in the 1940s.
I am thrilled to once again be a member of the UCSB History Department, as I studied abroad here as an undergraduate during the 2013-2014 school year. In my spare time, I enjoy dancing, walking on Santa Barbara’s many beautiful beaches, and gluten free baking.
Courses Taught:
As the Instructor:
HIST 174Q/ GLOBAL 194: Capstone Seminar in Poverty, Inequality, and Social Justice (Spring 2021, Summer B 2021) Forthcoming: Winter 2022, Spring 2022.
As a TA:
ASAM 5: Introduction to Asian American Literature (Summer B 2020, Summer B 2021)
HIST 5: The History of the Present (Fall 2018)
HIST 17A: The American People – Colonial to Jacksonian Era (Fall 2021)
HIST 17B: The American People – 1820 to 1920 (Winter 2019, Winter 2020)
HIST 17C: The American People – World War I to the Present (Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Summer A 2018, Spring 2020)
HIST 74: Poverty, Inequality and Social Justice in Historical and Global Context (Fall 2019, Fall 2020)
As a Reader:
HIST 166C: The Sixties (Winter 2021)
HIST 166LB: American Legal History (Spring 2019)
Awards & Professional Activities:
Departmental Service:
History Department Lead TA (2020-2021 Academic Year)
Awards:
GSA Excellence in Teaching Award Winner (Spring 2021)
Patricia Cohen Endowed Graduate Fellowship (Spring 2021)
UCSB History Associates Fellowship (Spring 2021)
Academic Senate Outstanding Teaching Assistant Nominee (Winter 2021)
J. Bruce Anderson Memorial Fellowship (Awarded to Best TA in the UCSB History Department) (Spring 2020)
GSA Excellence in Teaching Award Nominee (Spring 2020)
UCSB History Associates Fellowship (Spring 2019)
Lectures Given:
“Gender, Class, and Culture in the Progressive Era”. Guest lecture for History 17B. March 5th 2019. IV Theater 1, UCSB. 75 minutes.
“Poverty During the Great Hunger in Ireland, 1845-1849”. Guest lecture for History 74. November 6th 2019. Harold Franke Hall, UCSB. 25 minutes.
Conference Presentations:
“Books and Backlash: The Publication and Censorship of Queer Young Adult Fiction in the 1980s and 1990s”. Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association (PCB-AHA) Annual Conference. September 20th 2021
“Read All AbOUT It: Activism, Consumerism, and Community Building in OutWeek Magazine, 1989-1991.” Envisioning LGBTQIA+ Wellbeing Graduate Conference. November 16 2018. Loma Pelona Center, UCSB. 25 minutes.
Online Articles:
“The Queer Authors Who Created Disney Classics”, The Enchanted Archives, October 2019. URL: https://enchantedarchives.com/queerauthors