WELCOME!
Welcome and greetings! Thanks for taking the time to peruse my page. On this site, there is copy of my CV, descriptions and syllabi of my courses, papers presented, reading lists in my research areas (coming soon) and links.
As a PhD in American religious history, I am a Religious Studies scholar and then a grudging cultural historian. My method and evidence (artifacts, newspapers, art, music, etc) place me firmly in the realm of cultural studies, and my work reflects this eclecticism. My dissertation was under the direction of John Corrigan, and I am currently revising it for publication. Both my thesis and my dissertation emphasize the visual and material representations of religion as gateways to the religious lives of Americans.
My manuscript examines the second Ku Klux Klan (1915-1930) as a white, Protestant and patriotic movement, and I rely primarily on Klan print culture, and sometimes material culture, to show how religion was in many ways the foundation of the movement. I hope to illuminate the connections between Protestantism and definitions of America in this time period. Particularly, how do faith and nation coalesce within this movement? And what does this say about the (exclusionary) nature of nationalism?
My other scholarly interests include religion and the visual arts, ethnography, gender and cultural theory. I am particularly interested in using ethnographic method in historical work to open up the worldviews of historical actors and recreate their understandings of their lives and religious beliefs.
If you have any questions about my site or about my research, please feel free to contact me.