I am a Ph.D. student from Richmond, Virginia. My primary fields of study are the American Civil War and Reconstruction. I am currently writing my dissertation on Reconstruction in Mississippi and Louisiana from 1865 to the mid-1870s, focusing on how local politics and racial violence in these states influenced the policy of the Grant administration. I am also working on an article that examines how Confederates wrestled with the collapse of slavery during the Civil War.

Academic Appointments

Graduate Teaching Assistant, Mississippi State University, 2020-Present
Graduate Teaching Assistant, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2017-2019

Education

Ph.D. Candidate, Mississippi State University 2020-Present
M.A., History, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2019.
B.A., History, Virginia Commonwealth University, Cum Laude, 2017.
Publications
Master’s Thesis: “Architect of the New South: The Life and Legacy of General William Mahone.” – adviser, Dr. Kathryn Shively
Grants and Scholarships
The Dr. John Douglas and Elizabeth Forrest Fund for Graduate Student Excellence, 2023
Schilling Fund Travel Grant, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2018.
John Hope Franklin Research Grant, Duke University, 2018-2019.
Craig Kennedy Scholarship, VCU, 2018.
Honors and Awards
Mississippi State: William E. Parrish Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award, 2021

Conferences and Public Lectures

“The Fragmented Lost Cause: William Mahone and the Readjuster Party in Historical Memory,” University of Mississippi Conference on the Civil War: Crossroads of Memory, October 30, 2021.
“Architect of the New South,” Emerging Scholars’ Presentations, The American Civil War Museum, May 4, 2019.
“William Mahone and the Readjuster Party: Race and Politics in Postwar Virginia,” Virginia Forum, Longwood University, March 15, 2019.
“Emancipation During the American Civil War,” Guest Lecture, History 201 “American Identity” Virginia Commonwealth University, March 11, 2019.
“General William Mahone and the Readjuster Party,” Three-minute Thesis competition, VCU, October 18, 2018.

Book Reviews

Review, Fighting Means Killing: Civil War Soldiers and the Nature of Combat, by Jonathan Steplyk, for The West Tennessee Historical Society Papers, (Summer 2023).
Public History Contributions
“The Nashville Petition of 1865 and the Promise of Reconstruction.” For the Emerging Civil War Blog 12/16/2022. https://emergingcivilwar.com/2022/12/16/the-nashville-petition-of-1865-…
“Selectively Remembered: William Mahone and the Readjuster Party.” For the Emerging Civil War Blog 4/11/2019. https://emergingcivilwar.com/2019/04/11/emerging-scholar-heath-anderson/

Professional Affiliations

Society of Civil War Historians