About

I am a teacher and a historian.

In my teaching, I focus on helping students learn to ask good questions, think deeply about the sources they read, and communicate their ideas effectively.

I am an adjunct instructor of history at the University of North Alabama. Previously, I served at Vanderbilt University in several roles, including as Research Assistant Professor of History (2016-18). In the longer past, I was a history and literature instructor at a secondary school.

In my historical research, I study the intersection of religion and print culture in early modern Britain and across the Atlantic. My book, The pastor in print: Genre, audience, and religious change in early modern England analyzes the phenomenon of early modern pastors who gave effort to print authorship. The study provides a paradigm for understanding these clerics' efforts in print and parish as an integral part of their careers and their overarching religious goals.

My other recent publications relate to the implications of making Bible reference publications accessible to lay audiences, and to lay and clerical responses to reports of demon possession. My current research projects are on English puritan objections to the practice of "churching" women after childbirth, and on a 1637 manuscript that critiqued church covenanting practices in New England.