Ph.D. History, University of Massachusetts-Amherst/Five Colleges, 2004
Specializations: American Urban Politics and Society, Early American Architecture and Material Culture, Early Modern World History
M.A. History, University of Massachusetts-Amherst/Five Colleges, 1998
B.A. History, Salem State University, 1989 (cum laude)
UR 101 Introduction to Urban Studies
UR 193 First Year Seminar
UR 201 Analysis of Urban Systems
UR 212 American Metropolitan Evolution ("Metro")
UR 311 Urban Politics and Policies
UR 312 Worcester, A City & Its People
UR 315 Oral History for Urban Areas
UR 365 Urban Education Research and Policy
UR 401 Research Seminar in Urban Studies/Capstone
UR 432 Demographic Research Seminar
UR 440 Practicum (Oral History Field Work)
UR 450 Internship: Urban Studies
Worcester State University, Worcester, Massachusetts
Associate Professor of Urban Studies, 2009 – present.
Teach undergraduate classes: Introduction to Urban Studies, FYS: Urban Art, Urban Politics & Policy, Global Migrations, American Metropolitan Evolution, Worcester Politics & Urban Political Systems, Analysis of Urban Systems, and Research Seminar in Urban Studies/Capstone; advise students; supervise internships, directed, and independent studies; and serve on university committees.
Department Chair, 2013 – 2021.
Oversee undergraduate program in an academic department of 5 full-time and 4-6 regular adjunct faculty members, with two administrative positions, graduate assistants, and work-study students; assist Graduate Program Director as needed; support department’s Intergenerational Urban Institute; and represent department inside and outside of WSU.
Director of WSU CityLab, 2012 – present.
Manage activities of CityLab, the department’s research institute and archives/repository; oversee CityLab research projects; coordinate research teams; represent CityLab inside and outside of WSU.
Worcester Historical Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts
Director of Programs, 2007 - 2008.
Created, implemented, and managed school, outreach, and general public programs; developed partnerships with area cultural and educational organizations; designed curricula; and worked with museum teams on a variety of exhibits and projects.
Stonehill College, Easton, Massachusetts
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of History, 2003 - 2007.
Taught undergraduate Critical Encounters (Gen. Ed. History Survey), American Nation I and II, Colonial America, The Early Republic, Massachusetts History, and Public History. Oversaw independent studies and projects, advised students, directed senior theses, served on college/department committees. Coordinated Public History initiatives, and led Cultural Encounters, a freshman seminar.
Fitchburg State University, Fitchburg, Massachusetts
Instructor (full-time), Department of Social Sciences, 2001 - 2003.
Taught undergraduate courses: US History to 1876, The American Revolution, Special Methods in Teaching History, Biography of America (Telecourse), and graduate-level Revolutionary America and Antebellum America; oversaw independent studies in World History, 1400-1750. Supervised and evaluated student teacher practica, advised students, and served on college/department, M.A. Theses, and general examination committees.
Gardner High School, Gardner, Massachusetts
Faculty, Department of History, 2000 - 2001.
Taught and developed upper-level electives including AP US Government, US History, Massachusetts History, American Government and Politics, and Honors Economics. National Honor Society Faculty Advisor. Designed junior year US History curriculum.
University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts
Teaching Assistant, Department of History, 1997 - 2000.
Lectured and led discussion sections for: World History Since 1400, The Civil War Era, American Civilization to 1876, Western Thought Since 1600, and Europe Since 1815.
Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts
Visitor Programs & Services Coordinator, Education Department, 1991 - 1995.
Researched, designed, and presented school group and public programs, classes, and teacher workshops; worked in curatorial division in project and exhibition planning; managed admissions, guide, and docent staff.
Author, Campus History Series: Worcester State University, a history of the university from its founding to the present. (Arcadia Publishing, May 2018).
Forthcoming: Co-Author (with Alex Briesacher and Kirby Wycoff), Race, Class, Trauma, and Suspension: Situational Impact on School Suspensions in a Mid-Sized American City.” To be submitted for publication to a national educational policy journal.
Co-Author (with Alex Briesacher and Kirby Wycoff), “Race, Class, and Discipline: Worcester Public Schools and Chapter 222.” (WSU CityLab, 2016.)
Co-Author (with Timothy Murphy, Mary Jo Marion, and Elizabeth Setren), “In Search of Opportunity: Latino Men’s Paths to Post-Secondary Education in Urban Massachusetts.” (The Boston Foundation/The Balfour Foundation, 2016).
Advisor and Project Team Member, “Charter Schools and Latino Students in Massachusetts” (UMass-Boston Gaston Institute and the Schott Foundation, October, 2016).
Primary Author (with President’s Honors Seminar Students), “Consortium Dreams: A Study of Worcester Students’ Hopes for Inter-College Connections” for President’s Honors Seminar (Worcester, MA: WSU CityLab, 2016).
Co-Author (with Joseph G. Schlegel), “Worcester’s Nodes and Commercial Corridors—Part I” for Preservation Worcester and the City of Worcester. (Worcester, MA: WSU CityLab, 2016).
Primary Author, “Worcester Arts Council Funding Priorities Survey Report, Summer 2015” for Worcester Arts Council. (Worcester, MA: WSU CityLab, 2015).
Co-Author (with Madeline Otis Campbell), “Suspension in Worcester: Continuing the Conversation” (Worcester, MA: WSU CityLab, 2014).
Mark G. Spencer, ed., Encyclopedia of the American Enlightenment (Ontario, Canada: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2014). Contributed an entry on Charles Bulfinch, Architect.
Primary Author, “Usage Study of McGrath Parking Lot, Worcester, Massachusetts, January – April, 2013,” (Worcester, MA: WSU CityLab, 2013).
Review of S. W. Pope, Patriotic Games: Sporting Traditions in the American Imagination, 1876-1926, for Journal of Popular Culture, Fall 2009.
Review of Alfred F. Young, Masquerade: The Life and Times of Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier for Labor: Studies in Working Class History in the Americas, June 2007.
Review of Bernard L. Herman, Town House: Architecture and Material Life in the Early American City, 1780-1830 for Journal of American Culture, June 2007.
Review of Nancy S. Seasholes, Walking Tours of Boston's Made Land for H-Urban, February 2007.
“Charmed with the French: Reassessing the Early Career of Charles Bulfinch, Architect” Historical Journal of Massachusetts, Summer 2006.
Beyond Shovels and Shoes: Exploring the Histories of Easton and Brockton, Massachusetts, 1700-1900. (Easton, MA: Stonehill College Archives, 2005).
Burt Feintuch and David H. Watters (eds.), Encyclopedia of New England Culture. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005). Contributed an entry on the Salem Witch Trials.
2015-16. Project Co-Creator and Principal Investigator, Strategic Plan Implementation Fund Grant for CitySpeak: A New, Interdisciplinary Model to Address Urban Issues Through the Arts. In collaboration with Visual + Performing Arts Department. ($9,970)
2015-16. Project Co-Creator and Co-Principal Investigator, Strategic Plan Implementation Fund Grant for Urban Networks. In collaboration with Latino Education Institute. ($25,000)
2015-16. Awardee, Strategic Plan Implementation Fund Grant for WSU Archives Project: More Effectively Using and Promoting the Special Collections. In collaboration with History & Political Science, the Dennis Brutus Collection, and the University Library. ($60,600)
2015. Recipient, Teaching and Learning Innovation Grant for Innovation, Research, and Engagement: Building the Honors Curriculum, Year Two to develop “The President’s Honors Seminar.” ($4,000)
2014. Co-Principal Investigator and Report Co-Author for Pathways to Higher Education grant from The Balfour Foundation/Boston Foundation, in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education and Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, to research the Latino opportunity gap in five Massachusetts cities: Boston, Worcester, Springfield, Holyoke, and Lawrence. In collaboration with Latino Education Institute. ($200,000)
2013-2014. University Assessment Fellow, Worcester State University.
Summer 2006. Awarded American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies/Boston Athenaeum Fellowship for a four-week residency at the Boston Athenaeum.
January 2006. Selected as a consultant for American Historical Association Annual Meeting program entitled “Exchange of Views: Doing American History at Historic Sites.”
July 2003. Awarded Stonehill College Frueauff Foundation Teaching Fellowship.
June 2001. Selected as a participant in American Antiquarian Society Summer Seminar, Using Graphic Arts as Primary Sources.
2000-2001. Awarded an Andrew Mellon Fellowship for a four-week residency at the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston.
2000-2001. Awarded the Bauer-Gordon Summer Research Grant from the Department of History at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst for twelve weeks of dissertation research.
In addition to my continuing community-engaged research work associated with CityLab, I play an active role in CitySpeak as one of its creators and its research director. CitySpeak is an innovative research- and arts-based approach to urban planning and community development. We are currently involved in a multi-sited project in Worcester and planning for a CitySpeak project in Nashville, TN. We hope to better connect people with their cities, and use the combined data from all projects to explore urban exclusion and inclusion in American cities.
A larger and long-term project I am always working toward is a City of Worcester since 1900. Most reputable histories of the city, the second largest in New England, end at the turn-of the-twentieth century. The story of the twentieth century, though, is much different and deeply contested. I am researching different aspects of the period and occasionally working on co-authored articles with other scholars and former students. These include, for example, an article on the 1910s Worcester Motion Picture Review Board and another on impact of the Civil Rights Movement on the city.