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AFRICAN AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP
COURSE SYLLABUS

Covering the period of enslavement through the Black Freedom Struggle, this course hones in on key moments in American history that have shaped and crystallized African Americans quest for citizenship.

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TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

 

When I first began studying history in college, my knowledge of how to investigate and write historically was minimal. I often approached history from a genealogical or familial basis. Through my undergraduate tenure, I learned how to construct an effective historical argument that positioned the significance of history within a contemporary framework. Thus, my teaching style aims to evoke in students the same enthusiasm of discovery and achievement that I felt when I realized the diversity and cultural overlap within American history. 

Teaching United States history and public history are often thought to require different instruction methods. However, I present students with various examples of how to use material culture to examine historical events for a more nuanced depiction of the past. Ultimately, I want my students to make connections. To achieve this goal, the classroom in some instances must become the world we live in. I regularly have my students engross themselves in the public realm of history by visiting historic sites, cultural centers, and museums to situate their understanding of history in context with how the public views those same representations of the past. These interactions outside of the classroom also reinforce an understanding of the cause and effect of cultural and historical landscapes. As a student of public history, it is my job and my passion to bridge the gap between students appreciating and viewing changes in physical, cultural, and economic systems over time. 

I currently teach sections of United States, African American, Digital, and Introduction to Public History courses. These classes allow me to incorporate scholarship that demonstrates how historical narratives change over time. 

DIGITAL STUDY BOOK

No Longer Yours: Slavery and Freedom Seeking in North Carolina

This project seeks to provide readers with a grounding and synthesis of the slave experience in North Carolina. It was achieved by weaving primary and secondary sources together and by framing the topics of the slave experience to elements. For instance, the earth chapter focuses on family and labor dealing with the earth, or the wood chapter focuses on skilled enslaved people and the labor using trees. 

The material is based upon work in partnership with Dr. Brian Robinson, Dr. Rhonda Jones, and Dr. Arwin Smallwood. Research was assisted by a grant from the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), funded by the Department of Interior, National Park Service. 

PUBLICATIONS 
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Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts

Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA)

The Journal of the North Carolina Association of Historians

North Carolina Association of Historians

The Southern Quarterly

A Journal of Arts and Letters in the South

Reviews in Digital Humanities

Review of the Black Craftspeople Digital Archive 

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