I am a public historian whose work is dedicated to building empathy and advancing social justice.
I have worked in museums and for community organizations, helping communities reclaim their narratives through collaborative public history projects. I have experience engaging marginalized communities through historical partnerships, creating and sustaining community-centered archives, and producing historical research that foregrounds social justice. My previous projects have focused on how history is connected to the present, in efforts to explore/question systems of inequity and oppression.
Previously, I co-curated Owning Up: Racism and Housing in Minneapolis which explores the history of racist housing policy and its lasting effects. The exhibit was awarded the National Council for Public History 2019 Student Project Award and the American Association for State and Local History 2019 Award of Excellence. I was also awarded the Josie R. Johnson Human Rights and Social Justice Award from the University of Minnesota’s Office of Equity & Diversity in 2018.
I am active in the public history community — hosting events and community conversations, attending trainings, and editing publications — and I currently serve as the co-chair of the Membership Committee for the National Council on Public History. I graduated in 2019 with a Master’s degree in Heritage Studies & Public History from the University of Minnesota.
Selected Publications
- “Challenging the Badger Brand: The Ethics of Conducting Oral History Interviews with Student-Athletes,” The Oral History Review.
- “Seizing The Day: remembering Adela Kalvary Owen,” UW-Madison Public History Project Blog, January 25, 2022.
- Perspective: “More questions than answers: Interrogating restricted access in the archives,” Journal of the History of Behavioral Sciences, January 18, 2021.
- “Successful Beyond Expectation:” Blackface, Minstrelsy, and Racist Entertainment at the University of Wisconsin–Madison,” UW–Madison Public History Project Blog | October 26, 2020.