I am a PhD candidate in early American history at the College of William and Mary. My current research explores how discourses about Africans and West Africa were formed in, and shaped by, the early modern French Atlantic. Specifically, my dissertation centers around the work of Jean-Baptiste Labat, one of the most prolific eighteenth-century historians of West Africa, and pays careful attention to the scientific, religious, and economic ideologies that drove his categorizations of West Africa and Africans all over the French Atlantic world.

I received BAs in French and history, and a minor in gender and women’s studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2010), and remain a very proud Badger. The College of William and Mary awarded me my MA in 2013 for my thesis on Eliza Jacquelin Ambler Brent Carrington and female historical memory of the American Revolution in Virginia.

When I’m not reading or writing history (which isn’t all that often), I can be found planning my next travel adventure, going for a walk or hike somewhere lovely, or developing my next pie recipe.