Department Faculty

"I am a historian of the Civil War era, focusing primarily on the home front and formation of nations and nationalism in the middle nineteenth century. My work has focused on the construction of Confederate identity during the war and the use of ceremonies such as Memorial Days and Emancipation Days after the war to reinforce and contest political identities. I am currently working on two book-length projects. The first is a study of the meaning of treason during and after the Civil War; the second involves a synthesis of work on the Confederate and Union home fronts as part of a projected series on the sesquicentennial with the University of North Carolina Press. As director of the Richards Civil War Era Center, I work with student interns, lead an annual tour for the History Club, and work with public school teachers as part of a UNESCO program to interpret the African slave trade and the struggle for freedom in the United States. I also am the editor of Civil War History, the journal for the field."