Professional Appointments

• Historian, U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, Office of the Historian, Declassification and Publishing Division; review Foreign Relations of the United States manuscripts for content and substance; consult and advise historians to resolve queries and inconsistencies in manuscripts; perform technical editing of complex documentary material for style and accuracy (June 2006-present)
• Associate managing editor, South Carolina Encylcopedia, University of South Carolina, Institute for Southern Studies; recruited authors for entries on specific topics; proofread entire text of encyclopedia; coordinated delivery of final text to University of South Carolina Press (August-December 2004)

Education

• Ph.D. in History, University of South Carolina (May 2006)
• M.A. in Public History, University of South Carolina (May 2002)
• M.A. in Library and Information Science, University of South Carolina (May 2002)
• B.A. cum laude in History, Lawrence University (June 1999)

Publications

Books

• Railroads in the Old South: Pursuing Progress in a Slave Society (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009)
• Associate managing editor, South Carolina Encyclopedia, ed. Walter Edgar (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2006)

Articles

• “Railroads and Time Consciousness in the Antebellum South,” Enterprise and Society 9 (September 2008): 433-56 [Advance Access link to pdf available here, link to full text available here]
• “Desertion and Loyalty in the South Carolina Infantry, 1861-1865,” Civil War History 50 (March 2004): 47-65
• “Desertion and Dissatisfaction in Greenville District, South Carolina: 1860-1865,” Proceedings of the South Carolina Historical Association (2001): 39-50

Reference Essays

• Twenty-two entries in the South Carolina Encyclopedia, including “South Carolina Railroad” (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2006)
• “South Carolina,” in Encyclopedia of the New American Nation, ed. Paul Finkelman (Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2005)

Book Reviews

• John Majewski, Modernizing a Slave Economy: The Economic Vision of the Confederate Nation (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009), forthcoming in Georgia Historical Quarterly
• Steven Hahn et al., eds., Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867, series 3, volume 1, Land and Labor, 1865 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2008), forthcoming in Journal of Southern History
• Bruce W. Eelman, Entrepreneurs in the Southern Upcountry: Commercial Culture in Spartanburg, South Carolina, 1845-1880 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2008), reviewed in Technology and Culture 50 (October 2009): 929-30
• Paul Paskoff, Troubled Waters: Steamboat Disasters, River Improvements, and American Public Policy, 1821-1860 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2007), reviewed in Business History Review 83 (summer 2009): 394-6
• Frank Byrne, Becoming Bourgeois: Merchant Culture in the South, 1820-1865 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2006), reviewed in Civil War Book Review (spring 2008)
• W. Scott Poole, South Carolina's Civil War: A Narrative History (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2005), reviewed in South Carolina Historical Magazine 108 (April 2007): 166-7
• Richard Follett, The Sugar Masters: Planters and Slaves in Louisiana's Cane World, 1820-1860 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005), reviewed in American Nineteenth Century History 8 (March 2007): 113-5
• John C. Inscoe, ed., Appalachians and Race: The Mountain South from Slavery to Segregation (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2001), reviewed in Ohio Valley History 6 (summer 2006): 71-2
• Sean Patrick Adams, Old Dominion, Industrial Commonwealth: Coal, Politics, and Economy in Antebellum America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004), reviewed in H-Southern-Industry (August 2006)
• Robert Angevine, The Railroad and the State: War, Politics, and Technology in Nineteenth-century America (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004), reviewed in Enterprise and Society 7 (March 2006): 210-2
• Maury Klein, A History of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad (2d ed., Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2003), reviewed in H-Tennessee (March 2005)
• Bessie Martin, A Rich Man's War, A Poor Man's Fight: Desertion of Alabama Troops from the Confederate Army (1932; reprint, Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2003), reviewed in H-CivWar (August 2003)

Professional Issues

• “Introduction” to “The Transition from Graduate Student to Professional,” Perspectives on History 46 (December 2008): 42
• “Introduction” to “Forum on Mentoring," Perspectives 45 (November 2007): 54 [full text available here]
• “Introduction” to “What Is the Meaning of the Master's Degree? A Roundtable,” Perspectives 45 (April 2007): 18 [full text available here]
• Co-author (with Constance B. Schulz, Page Putnam Miller, and Kevin M. Allen) of Careers for Students of History, published by the National Council on Public History and the American Historical Association (2002) [full text available here]

Honors and Awards

• Mary Elizabeth Newton Graduate Award, College of Arts and Sciences, University of South Carolina; three-year fellowship presented every other year to one Ph.D. candidate in history (2003-2006)
• Hollis Prize, South Carolina Historical Association; awarded to the best article published by a graduate student in the Proceedings over a two-year period (2002)

Fellowships

• One-year postdoctoral fellowship, Institute for Southern Studies, University of South Carolina (2006-2007; declined)
• Chandler Traveling Fellowship, Baker Library, Harvard Business School (2004)
• Mellon Fellowship, Virginia Historical Society (awarded 2004, used 2005)

Conference Participation

Papers Presented: Scholarship

• “ ‘This Is the Way to Build Railroads: Slavery and Railroads in Antebellum America,” American Historical Association annual meeting (New York; January 2009)
• “Towards a Social History of the Transportation Revolution,” Organization of American Historians annual meeting (New York; March 2008)
• “The Iron Horse Turns South: A History of Antebellum Southern Railroads,” Krooss Dissertation Prize session, Business History Conference annual meeting (Cleveland; June 2007)
• “Railroads and the Antebellum South: Southern Exceptionalism?” Business History Conference annual meeting (Cleveland; June 2007)
• “Slave Labor and Southern Railroads,” Southern Historical Association annual meeting (Atlanta; November 2005)
• “Operating Early American Railroads: A Comparative Approach,” Business History Conference annual meeting (Minneapolis; May 2005; paper read in my absence due to illness)
• “Community Relations on an Early United States Railroad,” Third International Early Railways Conference annual meeting (York, England; September 2004)
• “Filing Cabinets and the Growth of American Business,” Southeastern Museums Conference annual meeting (Mobile, AL; October 2003)
• “Railroads and Time Consciousness in Antebellum South Carolina,” Society for the History of Technology annual meeting (Atlanta; October 2003)
• “Time Management and Antebellum Railroads,” Southern Industrialization Project annual meeting (Nashville; September 2003)
• “The Limits of Service in the South Carolina Infantry,” Social Science History Association annual meeting; also served as session chair (Chicago; November 2001)
• “Desertion and Dissatisfaction in Greenville District, South Carolina: 1860-1865,” South Carolina Historical Association annual meeting (Greer, SC; March 2000)

Papers Presented: Professional Issues

• Roundtable participant, “Putting Historical Skills to Work: Careers beyond Academe,” American Historical Association annual meeting (New York; January 2009)
• Roundtable participant and chair, “The Education of Historians for the Twenty-First Century: What Does It Mean for Graduate Students?” American Historical Association annual meeting (Seattle; January 2005) [full text of the AHA's report available here]

Panels Chaired: Professional Issues

• “From Teaching Assistant to Tenure: The Transition from Graduate Student to Professional,” American Historical Association annual meeting (Washington, DC; January 2008)
• “Graduate Mentoring: Issues and Perspectives,” American Historical Association annual meeting (Atlanta; January 2007)
• “What Is the Meaning of the Master's Degree?” American Historical Association annual meeting (Philadelphia; January 2006) [full text of the AHA's report available here]

Editorial and Research Experience

• Editorial assistant, South Carolina Encyclopedia; checked encyclopedia entries for accuracy and completeness (fall 2001-summer 2003, summer 2004)
• Research assistant for South Carolina at the Brink (University of South Carolina Press, 2006), by Phil Grose; researched Governor Robert E. McNair's race relations policy (summer 2000)
• Research assistant for an edited collection of Depression-era photographs of Maryland by Constance B. Schulz; described photographs and assisted in selection of photographs (summer 2000)

Teaching Experience

• Adjunct instructor, Newberry College, Newberry, SC (spring 2006)
• Adjunct instructor, University of South Carolina (fall 2005-spring 2006)
• Teaching assistant, University of South Carolina (fall 1999-spring 2000, fall 2003-spring 2004)

Archival Experience

• Archival intern, Wisconsin Veterans Museum, Madison, WI; cataloged visual items, answered reference requests, preserved historical posters (summer 2001)
• Archival processing assistant, Modern Political Collections, South Caroliniana Library, Columbia, SC; cataloged visual items, composed one finding aid, and performed preliminary processing on new collections (fall 2000-spring 2001)
• Archival processing intern, Manuscripts Division, South Caroliniana Library, Columbia, SC; assisted processing the papers and composing the finding aid for the Benjamin L. Abney collection, 40 linear feet (spring 2000)

Professional Service

• Alumni representative, Darrick Hart Award Committee, Department of History, University of South Carolina (2009)
• Member, Graduate and Early Career Committee, American Historical Association (2009-present)
• Member, Editorial Advisory Board, Perspectives on History, American Historical Association (2007-present)
• Manuscript reviewer for Enterprise and Society (2008)
• Member, Committee for Graduate Students, American Historical Association (2004-2007)
• Judge, National History Day competition, College Park, MD (annually, 2007-2009)
• Invited participant, “Competencies and Credentials for Training History Professionals” conference hosted by the American Historical Association and the Johnson Foundation (May 2005, declined due to illness)
• Scholarship committee, South Carolina Archival Association (2001-2002)
• Local arrangements committee, “Historians with an Edge” conference commemorating the 25th anniversary of the University of South Carolina Public History program (2001)

Professional Affiliations

• American Historial Association
• Organization of American Historians
• Southern Historical Association
• Society for Historians of the Early American Republic