CV

EDUCATION

MS, Counseling, California State University East Bay, expected 2026

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

Grandpa’s Letters: A Pearl Harbor Survivor’s Story. University of Nebraska Press (forthcoming, 2027).

Never Caught Twice: Horse Stealing and Culture in Western Nebraska, 1850 – 1890. University of Nebraska Press (2020).

Articles and Book Chapters

  • “‘What’s Next?’ Graduate Studies and Student Altruism in Prison Education” (under review).
  • “A Third Option: The HUX MA Program and the Past, Present, and Future of Graduate Education in Prison,” Emerging Voices: Critical Topics in Prison Education, Bloomsbury Press (forthcoming, 2027).
  • “’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

  • “Lynching in Nebraska,” in Michael Pfeifer (ed.), Lynching in the United States: A Reference Work (Fortress Press, forthcoming).
  • “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

  • “The Applied Humanities: An Experiment in Project-Based Graduate Study”, National Conference on Higher Education in Prisons Annual Conference, Cleveland, 2026.
  • “The HUX MA Reboot: Teach-Outs, Redesigns, and Reflections on the Lifecycle of an Academic Program,” Association for Continuing Higher Education 85th Annual Conference, Palm Springs, 2024.
  • “The Caged Bird Quilts: Queen Liliuokalani, Incarceration, and the Praxis of Crafting,” American Historical Association – Pacific Coast Branch Annual Conference, Honolulu, 2024.
  • “Advancements in Prison Education: Best Practices from Three UPCEA Institutions,” 2024 Annual UPCEA Conference, Boston, 2024.
  • “Archives in the Attic: Turning Family History into Scholarship,” CSUDH Untenured Faculty Organization Conference, Online, 2022.
  • “Correspondence Plus: Old Delivery Models, New Technology, and Incarcerated Education,” 14th Annual Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy, Blacksburg, Virginia, 2022.
  • “Learning How to Explode: Anti-Horse Thief Societies, Stockgrower’s Associations, and Vigilantism along the Middle Border,” Western History Association Conference, Online, 2020.
  • “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.

AWARDS AND HONORS

Nebraska Book Award, Nebraska Library Association, 2021

GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS

  • Faculty Professional Development Fellowship, California State University Commission on Continuing and Professional Education, 2023 – 2024
  • Assigned Time for Exceptional Levels of Service to Students Award, CSUDH, 2021
  • 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