Research and Teaching Interests:
As an Atlantic historian, I am interested in the complex relationships (social, economic, and political) that developed among the Americas, Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean in the early modern period. Using a comparative perspective, I explore the history of colonialism, imperialism, slavery, issues of labor, race, and gender, and the rise of nationalism and revolutionary movements. My other interests include: environmental history, Early American social and cultural history, material culture, natural history and knowledge production, museum studies, and public history.
I am working on a book, tentatively entitled, Furnishing the Empire: The Rise and Decline of Mahogany in the British Atlantic, 1720-1850, slated to be published by Harvard University Press. It examines the popularization of mahogany consumption in Britain and North America in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and the resulting human and environmental impacts on the West Indies and Central America where it was harvested.
Before joining the History faculty at Stony Brook University, I worked as a museum curator, exhibition developer, and historical consultant at numerous historic sites and museums. Most recently, I served as historical advisor for a documentary film about the New England slave trade, entitled “Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North.”
Publications:
“Better Judges of the Situation: Environmental Realities & Problems of Imperial Authority in the Bay of Honduras,” Itinerario, special issue: “Geographies of Empire,” (2006, issue 3).
“Nature's Currency: The Atlantic Mahogany Trade and the Commodification of Nature in the 18th Century,” Early American Studies,2:1 (Spring 2004). (Winner, Program in Early American Society and Economics Prize for Outstanding Journal Article.”
"Bounding Oceans, Encompassing Forests: Mobility & Dislocation in the Atlantic Mahogany Trade," Working Paper, Atlantic History Seminar, Harvard University, 2004.
