Who I Am
I grew up in the Rust Belt, but I now live in Philadelphia. I’m a public historian by training with particular interests in urban history, the Progressive Era, and digital humanities.
In my free time, I read speculative fiction, knit, play videogames, and advocate for labor rights and food security. I love skee ball and plantain stew.
What I Do
Public Digital Scholarship Librarian
University of Pennsylvania Research Data and Digital Scholarship, Penn Libraries
January 2022 — Present
In my role as Penn Libraries’ first Public Digital Scholarship Librarian, I work to initiate and support digital projects, scholarship, and programming that center community partnerships and public engagement. As part of the Research Data and Digital Scholarship team, I consult with audiences on and beyond campus to actively facilitate opportunities for equitable collaboration, resource sharing, and critical inquiry in the digital realm.
- Co-chair, Digital Projects and Publishing Working Group
- Departmental representative, Web Relaunch Strategic Team
- Member of Digital Collections Systems Advisory Committee
- Departmental liaison to Penn Libraries Collection Development Council
- Convener, PUG@Penn (Python Users’ Group)
Adjunct Assistant Professor (Digital History)
Temple University Center for Public History, College of Liberal Arts
January 2019 — January 2023
Syllabi for cross-listed undergraduate/graduate level Digital History course. Feel free to use the materials here with attribution (CC BY-NC 4.0).
My Expertise
In 2018, I wrote my master’s thesis on data, discourse, and the development of community-centered museum practice and public history within the American settlement house movement. It’s titled “Sympathy and Science: Social Settlements and Museums Forging the Future through a Usable Past” and I have granted rights for its open accessibility.
While I continue to avidly research these topics and keep up with new literature on the Progressive Era, the realities of my day-to-day job require that I operate within a broader body of scholarship.
In my work, I’ve delved into topics as diverse as British North American postal history, the visual memory of Polar exploration, the practices of early citizen climate scientists, the development of Jewish print culture in Europe, the origination and growth of Hubble Space Telescope operations, the debate over the invention of anesthetic ether, and the once-booming rye whiskey industry in Maryland.
More broadly, I’ve cultivated a critical appreciation for digital humanities theory, methods, and tools. I have a particular interest in the structure, integrity, and ethics of data use in the humanities. I also support the burgeoning scholarly discussion on feminism and the praxis of an ethic of care within data, tech, and DH work.