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 a book-length project that examines the uses and misues of treason during and after the Civil War. As director of the Richards Civil War Era Center, I work with student interns, collaborate with public school teachers to interpret the struggle for freedom in the United States, and serve as the organizer for a biennial conference with the Society of Civil War Historians. I try to encourage new research projects and find ways to connect the public with the latest scholarship on this period. I also am the editor of Civil War History, the journal for the field."