I am a Ph.D. Candidate in History at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where I study the politics and culture of nineteenth- and twentieth-century America, especially in the West. After more than a decade in the tech industry, I returned to graduate school to pursue research at the intersection of political history and digital humanities. In 2015, I co-founded Evolved Metrics, a boutique software and service company with a fantastic team of employees and teammates. We work with over 60 clients for whom we complete data analytics, process improvement, and software automation projects. We also created the easiest-to-use CRM product on the market, with clients across North America and Europe. I have always been passionate about teaching. Before coming back to do my PhD, I taught several courses at the University of Calgary and Mount Royal University.
My dissertation project examines the political culture of the last settler generation, from the Civil War to World War I, using a micro-historical approach to trace how expectations of expansion, federal investment, and postwar reunification gave way to disillusionment in the face of industrial capitalism. I also lead a digital project that uses network visualization and mapping to explore the relationships and affiliations that shaped this generation’s reform efforts. More broadly, I’m interested in American populisms, the culture of political reform, and the decline of settler colonial life in the postbellum United States.
