EDUCATION
MS, Counseling, California State University East Bay, expected 2023
Ph.D., History, University of California Los Angeles, 2014
- Fields: American West, Nineteenth-Century United States, Civil War and Reconstruction
MA, History, Marquette University, 2005
BA, History, Southeast Missouri State University, 2003
PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS
2016-Present: Academic Coordinator and Instructor, Humanities External Master’s Degree, College of Arts and Humanities, California State University Dominguez Hills
2015-2016: Dean’s Lecturer on Social Research, Department of History, University of California Los Angeles
PUBLICATIONS
Books
Never Caught Twice: Horse Stealing and Culture in Western Nebraska, 1850 – 1890. University of Nebraska Press (2020).
Articles and Book Chapters
- “’Nebraska Is, at Least, Not a Desert:’ Land Sales, False Promises, and Real Estate Borderlands on the Great Plains,” In Search of the Interior Borderlands: Where Does the Midwest End and the Great Plains Begin? (Sioux Falls, S.D.: The Center for Western Studies, 2019), 76 – 90.
- “‘The Wide Awake Citizens’: Anti-Horse Thief Associations in South Central Wisconsin, 1865 – 1900,” Wisconsin Magazine of History 91 (2007): 16-27.
- “Milwaukee at War: A Photo Essay,” Milwaukee History Magazine 25 (2002): 29 – 42.
Encyclopedia Entries
- “Frontier Wars,” in Edward J. Blum (ed.), Dictionary of American History, Supplement: America in the World, 1776 to the Present (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2016.)
- “Cattle Associations,” “Cattle Industry,” and “Law Enforcement,” in Steven L. Danver (ed.), Encyclopedia of Politics in the American West (Washington D.C.: CQ Press, 2013)
CONFERENCE ACTIVITY
Papers Presented
- “When Wishes Were Horses: Herd Size, Horse Stealing, and Power on the Plains,” Southern Forum on Agricultural, Rural, and Environmental History, Starkville, Mississippi, 2015.
- “Honor among Thieves: Horse Stealing, State Building, and a Culture of Theft on the 100th Meridian,” Agriculture and Economy in Borderlands, Agricultural Historical Society Conference, Banff, Alberta, 2013.
- “Standing Quietly by the Men: Horses, Humans, and the Value of Companionship in the West,” Competitors and Companions: Westerners’ Encounters with Animals, Western History Association Conference, Denver, Colorado, 2012.
- (Co-author and co-presenter) “Cowboy Morality in Historical Mass Media: Barriers to an Interdisciplinary Investigation of Dime Novels and Westward Expansion,” with Robert Lewis (Assistant Professor, Department of Advertising and Public Relations, University of Texas at Austin), Interdisciplinarity in the Arts and Sciences, Columbia University Institutionalizing Interdisciplinarity Graduate Conference, New York, 2011.
- “Profiling a Vigilante: John Bratt, Frontier Justice, and Models of Vigilantism,” invited talk, Autry National Center, Los Angeles, 2011.
- “Equine Economics: Horse Theft, Horse Wealth, and Applied Anthropology in the American West,” First Annual University of California Los Angeles History Plus Graduate Conference, Los Angeles, 2011.
- “Expecting Thieves, Not Zebras: Ranching, Anxiety, and Horse Stealing on the Nebraska Frontier,” New Perspectives on Violence and Crime, Third Annual Northern Illinois University History Graduate Student Conference, DeKalb, Illinois, 2010.
Discussant
“Tooth, Claw, Hoof, and Fin: Animals and Western History,” Western History Association Conference, St. Paul, Minnesota, 2016.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Lecturer, Department of History, Sierra College, 2018 – Present
- United States History to 1877
- United States History from 1865
- World History to 1500 CE
- World History from 1500 CE
Lecturer, Department of History and Humanities External M.A. Program, California State University Dominguez Hills, 2013 – Present
- World History I, to 1500 CE (lower division survey)
- United States History, 1492 – Present (lower division survey)
- World History II, 1500 to Present (lower division survey)
- American Frontier (upper division seminar)
- Civil War and Reconstruction (upper division lecture)
- American Immigration (upper division lecture)
- Slavery and Society (online graduate readings course)
- The Wild West (online graduate readings course)
Dean’s Lecturer on Social Research, Department of History, University of California Los Angeles, 2015 – 2016
- Thinking outside the Ammo Box: Violence in American History (capstone seminar)
Lecturer, Department of History, University of California Los Angeles, 2014
- American West (upper division survey)
Visiting Instructor, ONPS International Summer School at Qingdao University, 2013
- History of Ranching (lower division writing seminar)
- English Composition (lower division survey)
Lecturer, Department of History, Loyola Marymount University, 2013
- Western Civilization, 1500 – 2013 CE (lower division survey)
Graduate Student Instructor, Department of History, UCLA, 2010, 2012 – 2013
- Guns, Violence, and Culture in American History (lower division writing seminar)
- Movies, Memory, and Myth in the American West (lower division writing seminar)
- Where’s the Beef? An Unsavory History of America’s Favorite Food (lower division writing seminar)
- Work, Labor, and Violence in Gilded Age America (lower division writing seminar)
Teaching Assistant, Department of History, UCLA, 2008 – 2012
- Work, Labor, and Social Justice Freshman Cluster (two-quarter freshman survey)
- US Colonial History, 1492 – 1800 (lower division survey)
- History of Religion (lower division survey)
- History of Africa, 1800 – Present (lower division survey)
- Introduction to Communication Studies (lower division survey)
- Freedom of Communication (upper division survey)
Lecturer, Department of Computer Science, Wentworth Institute of Technology, 2008, 2010
- History of Computing (upper division survey)
Teaching Assistant, Department of History, Marquette University, 2004 – 2005
- Western Civilization, 1500 – 2013 CE (lower division survey)
- United States History (lower division survey)
GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
- CSUDH Provost’s Office Travel Award, 2018
- CSUDH College of Arts and Humanities Travel Award, 2018
- CSUDH College of Extended and International Education Travel Award, 2018
- Dissertation Year Fellowship, Doris G. Quinn Foundation, 2013 – 2014
- Caughey McWilliams Pre-Dissertation Fellowship, UCLA History Department, 2011 – 2012
- Hoxie Bonus Fund Research Travel Stipend, UCLA History Department, 2011
- Autry Summer Fellowship, Autry Institute for the Study of the American West, 2010
- Graduate Summer Research Mentorship, UCLA Graduate Division, 2010
- Carey McWilliams Research Travel Stipend, UCLA History Department, 2010