天美影视传媒

Education

• Ph.D., History, University of Chicago

• M.A., Social Sciences, University of Chicago

• B.A., History and Women鈥檚 Studies, Tulane University

Teaching Philosophy

My teaching philosophy begins from three interrelated commitments:

1. A recognition and affirmation of the diverse knowledge and experience everyone brings to the classroom and our collective learning environment.

2. A desire to motivate in students a sense of the value--personally, ethically, and professionally--of a rigorous and scholarly approach to understanding the complexities of the worlds they inhabit.

3. A belief that effectively interpreting the world means actively engaging with it.

Echoing the philosopher John Dewey, I am convinced "that education must be conceived as a continuing reconstruction of experience." I take this to mean that practically--and especially in the context of a variety of contemporary technological, cultural, and social transformations--the only education worthy of the name is grounded in a robust critical-interpretive method of understanding the world, our place in it, and what works for us. I have been appointed in History, Interdisciplinary Studies, American Studies, and Urban Studies departments and have taught in programs in African-American Studies, Human Rights, Law, Political Economy, and Women and Gender Studies as well. My classes at USA reflect this inter- and multidisciplinary background and seek to give students opportunities to engage with a variety of disciplinary, empirical, and theoretical perspectives and apply these to the interpretive problems that most interest them. I especially enjoy working with students on senior theses and helping them explore a wide diversity of research topics.

Research

I am a scholar of historical and contemporary American social, political, and cultural life with a particular interest in understanding how various kinds of social inequalities have been produced and at times overcome. My research ranges across a variety of spatial and temporal contexts with foci on the history and present of American labor, political economy, ascriptive ideologies, law, regionalism, and social movements and particular attention to urban and Gulf South contexts. During academic year 2025/26 I am a Faculty Fellow at the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard University. While at Harvard I will be completing a book manuscript entitled "The Ideology of Inequality: Political Economy and the Problem of 'Service' Work in the United States." The book traces a centuries-long history of the server/servant as distinct category of laborer and 鈥榮ervice鈥� as a discrete form of labor and economic good in Anglo-American culture, law, and social life. It then follows how this history formed the rarely acknowledged backdrop to political and cultural responses to the rise of and transition to a so-called service economy in United States from the end of World War II through the contemporary era. Other ongoing archival based research projects focus on circular labor migration from the 1880s-1920s in Gulf South cities and the labor and environmental politics and legal history of so-called Cost-Benefit Analysis in the 1970s and 1980s. Finally, I am also at work on a critical-theoretical synthesis of post-18th Century labor history that explicitly eschews categorizations of work (industrial, service, agricultural, care, etc) and worker (proletarian, peasant, servant, enslaved, mother, etc) in favor of a thickly described and deeply contextual account of social compulsion.

饾悞饾悶饾惀饾悶饾悳饾惌饾悶饾悵 饾悘饾惍饾悰饾惀饾悽饾悳饾悮饾惌饾悽饾惃饾惂饾惉

"The Pedagogical Possibilities of Contradictory 鈥楻ules鈥� in an Age of Large Language Models," 饾惗饾憿饾憻饾憻饾憭饾憶饾憽饾憼 饾憱饾憶 饾憞饾憭饾憥饾憪鈩庰潙栶潙涴潙� 饾憥饾憶饾憫 饾惪饾憭饾憥饾憻饾憶饾憱饾憶饾憯 (14), January 2026."Beyond the Katrina Moment: Exposure and the Political Economy of Invisibility After the Levee Failures," 饾憶饾憸饾憶饾憼饾憱饾憽饾憭 (51), August 2025. "Even the Dead Will Not Be Safe: Courageous History in the Hollers of West Virginia," in Paul Farber and Sue Mobley eds., 饾憖饾憸饾憶饾憸饾憵饾憭饾憶饾憽 饾惪饾憥饾憦-饾憛饾憭:饾惡饾憭饾憶饾憭饾憻饾憥饾憽饾憱饾憸饾憶 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2025). and Cedric Johnson, "Revisiting 饾憛饾憥饾憪饾憭, 饾憙饾憸饾憴饾憱饾憽饾憱饾憪饾憼, 饾憥饾憶饾憫 饾惗饾憿饾憴饾憽饾憿饾憻饾憭," 饾憶饾憸饾憶饾憼饾憱饾憽饾憭 (50), April 2025 and Sue Mobley, Engraving Egalite in New Orleans: Street Renaming and the Municipal Politics of History, 饾惔饾憵饾憭饾憻饾憱饾憪饾憥饾憶 饾惢饾憱饾憼饾憽饾憸饾憻饾憱饾憪饾憥饾憴 饾憛饾憭饾懀饾憱饾憭饾懁, 128(3), 2023. " 'New Life, New Vigor, and New Values': Privatization, Service Work, and Rise of Neoliberal Urbanism in Postwar Southern California," in Andrew Diamond and Thomas Sugrue eds., 饾憗饾憭饾憸饾憴饾憱饾憦饾憭饾憻饾憥饾憴 饾惗饾憱饾憽饾憱饾憭饾憼: 饾憞鈩庰潙� 饾憛饾憭饾憵饾憥饾憳饾憱饾憶饾憯 饾憸饾憮 饾憙饾憸饾憼饾憽饾懁饾憥饾憻 饾惔饾憵饾憭饾憻饾憱饾憪饾憥 (New York: NYU Press, 2020). "A Lesson in Eventful Temporality: Pedagogies of Donald Trump from Abroad." 饾憙饾憜: 饾憙饾憸饾憴饾憱饾憽饾憱饾憪饾憥饾憴 饾憜饾憪饾憱饾憭饾憶饾憪饾憭 饾憥饾憶饾憫 饾憙饾憸饾憴饾憱饾憽饾憱饾憪饾憼, 53(2), 2020. and Matt Sakakeeny eds., 饾憛饾憭饾憵饾憥饾憳饾憱饾憶饾憯 饾憗饾憭饾懁 饾憘饾憻饾憴饾憭饾憥饾憶饾憼: 饾惖饾憭饾懄饾憸饾憶饾憫 饾惛饾懃饾憪饾憭饾憹饾憽饾憱饾憸饾憶饾憥饾憴饾憱饾憼饾憵 饾憥饾憶饾憫 饾惔饾憿饾憽鈩庰潙掟潙涴潙○潙栶潙愷潙栶潙○潙� (Durham: Duke University Press, 2019). "You Can't Have Carnival Without Lent," 饾憘饾懀饾憭饾憻饾憴饾憥饾憶饾憫 饾惪饾憱饾憽饾憭饾憻饾憥饾憻饾懄 饾惤饾憸饾憿饾憻饾憶饾憥饾憴, 2019. "Is Temporary Becoming Forever?" 饾憗饾憭饾懁 饾惪饾憥饾憦饾憸饾憻 饾惞饾憸饾憻饾憿饾憵, 28(3), 2019. "Writing the History of Capitalism With Class," 饾憶饾憸饾憶饾憼饾憱饾憽饾憭 (29), 2019. and Steve Striffler eds., 饾憡饾憸饾憻饾憳饾憱饾憶饾憯 饾憱饾憶 饾憽鈩庰潙� 饾惖饾憱饾憯 饾惛饾憥饾憼饾懄: 饾憞鈩庰潙� 饾惢饾憱饾憼饾憽饾憸饾憻饾懄 饾憥饾憶饾憫 饾憙饾憸饾憴饾憱饾憽饾憱饾憪饾憼 饾憸饾憮 饾惪饾憥饾憦饾憸饾憻 饾憱饾憶 饾憗饾憭饾懁 饾憘饾憻饾憴饾憭饾憥饾憶饾憼 (Lafayette: University of Louisiana Press, 2014).

Outreach

My research also includes a variety of public history and humanities projects at the grassroots, university, non-profit, and governmental levels. I currently serve as Senior Historical and Research Advisor for Monument Lab, a non-profit public art and history studio that fosters critical conversations around monuments and public memory. My work with Monument Lab has included historical advising and editing for the podcast, Plot of Land, that tells stories of land use and inequality in the US. I also work closely with the cohorts Monument Lab's Re:Generation program that provides funding and collective support to expand the American commemorative landscape. From 2020-2022 I was the co-chair of the panel of scholarly experts that advised the New Orleans City Council Street Renaming Commission in their work rededicating more than forty streets and parks that previously honored men who committed treason against the United States and fomented rebellion against the Constitution. To our knowledge this is the largest attempt as yet undertaken to reimagine an urban landscape of commemoration. During my time as a faculty member at the University of Sydney I frequently appeared on tv and radio in Australia to discuss American political and social issues and regularly wrote research-based opinion essays in Australian and international publications. I continue to write essays for popular fora and occasionally still do media commentary for Australian outlets. I currently serve as board member for the Alabama Contemporary Art Center and an Advisory Committee Member for the Economic Justice Research Lab in New Orleans.

Biography

After receiving my Ph.D. at the University of Chicago I returned to the Gulf South on a Mellon Fellowship and later as an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship at Tulane University. In 2014 I took up a faculty position at the University of Sydney in Australia and spent eight years at Sydney鈥檚 United States Studies Centre and History Department where I remain an honorary faculty member and continue to work with Ph.D. students. I have been especially fortunate to have been awarded research fellowships that have allowed me in live in France and Germany and work closely with a variety of diverse scholars and students from around the world. When not teaching or trying to write, I love to take long backpacking trips, work on Mardi Gras costumes, cook, and play with my dog Lu. I鈥檓 an oft-suffering New Orleans Saints fan and am convinced that the Black and Gold were robbed of at least two Super Bowls during the Brees era.

Courses

• IST 101: Foundations of Interdisciplinary Studies
• IST 302: Interdisciplinary and Critical Thinking
• IST 430: Senior Research Thesis
• IST 490: Special Topics: Sports and Society
• IST 499: Honors Senior Thesis