I transferred to UC in 2011, completing my BA and receiving the Lenore F. McGrane Prize for the Most Promising Student in American History in 2014. After completing my undergraduate studies, I went on to earn a master’s in history from UC in 2017.

What are you up to these days?    

Currently, I am pursuing a Ph.D. in History from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. I am in the final stages of completing my dissertation and teaching an undergraduate course, “Race, Policing, and Incarceration in Antebellum America.” Entering my Ph.D. coursework, I felt extremely prepared and competent after my studies in Cincinnati.

What brought you to history at UC?  

To be frank, upon transferring to UC after several years of being out of school, I chose to study history simply because I believed that majoring in history provided me the best chance to complete my degree. That decision was not because I thought it would be easy but because I knew history would hold my interest the longest. I quickly became dedicated to learning as much as possible about the past.

With the encouragement of many UC History faculty members, I pursued an MA in history at UC and later began my Ph.D. studies at Georgetown. Leaving UC after my master’s degree, I was prepared to apply the skills I had acquired inside and outside of academia to my research interests centered on race and incarceration. My master’s thesis focused on these issues in antebellum Washington and has since expanded into my dissertation on the same subject. It was certainly not easy to get here, but I genuinely feel that the history department prepared me as well as any department in the country. My only regret about my time at UC was that I did not take a class with Dr. Willard Sunderland. 

What did you focus on as a history student at UC?  

I focused on American History above all.

Did you have any favorite history courses? Which ones and why?  

Several courses really stick out from my memories in the program, particularly the graduate courses I took on Atlantic History, African American History, and Pedagogy.

What skills did you pick up from studying history that have served you well beyond your courses?  

I really appreciated that the History Department strived to have students think not only as scholars but also as educators. Classes at both the undergraduate and gradual levels instilled a strong foundational base required for historians. Attention to historiography and methodology was always present. We read both classic and cutting-edge texts. We read widely and we read closely.

What did you focus on in your capstone and why?  

My capstone, “Against the Wind: The Push for Native American Rights and Acceptance,” explored the ways that Native Americans utilized federal laws and jurisprudence–aimed at limiting their rights–to demand and assert them during the height of the Civil Rights Era.

Have any advice for current students?

Reading and note-taking will get you very far. Participate frequently in class discussions and network. To be successful scholars, I suggest growing comfortable and adept in using primary sources as early as possible. Visit archives, handle and transcribe documents, devise a system of categorizing and cataloging them, and be a confident writer.