Laurie’s research looks at religious minority women in colonial and revolutionary America, specifically Jewish women and the items they used to represent themselves. Working within the RIGR node, she explores the significance of Jewish material culture in creating identities, homes, and families, as well as the impacts of American culture upon the Jewish community as they found acceptance and freedom in religious practices and societal inclusion in areas of education, employment, the arts, and political aspirations. Laurie’s dissertation tentatively titled “To Duke Street and Beyond: The Assimilation of an Eighteenth-Century Jewish Family” is a family biography of Jacob and Abigaill Levy Franks, an Ashkenazim Jewish family of colonial New York. By focusing upon the Franks family, Laurie examines the dynamics of a Jewish community at the individual and family level to show them as both part of the greater community and distinct from other Jews around them. By analyzing this often-overlooked group in the historiography of colonial America, Laurie aims to demonstrate through the Franks family how Jews in the British American colonies sought assimilation while attempting to safeguard their Jewishness.

Education:

Ph.D—Mississippi State University, in progress
Master of Arts—Mississippi State University, 2009
Bachelor of Arts—Mississippi State University, 2007

Academic Career:

Mississippi State University

FYE 1003—The Mississippi State Experience--present
LSK 1033—Fundamentals of Achievement—Fall 2009-present
LSK 1131—Fundamentals of Success—Fall 2009-present
LSK 4000—Nine Habits to Student Success—Fall 2012-Spring 2018
EN 0103—Basic English—Spring 2008-Spring 2009
EN 1103—English Composition I—Fall 2008-Spring 2019
EN 1123—English Composition II—Fall 2008-Spring 2019

Professional Employment
Coordinator/Instructor—Bulldog Rebound, Center for Academic Excellence, Mississippi State University, Fall 2009-present
Adjunct Online English Instructor, Department of English, Southern New Hampshire University. May 2018-July 2019.
Adjunct Online English Instructor, Department of English, Itawamba Community College. August 2009-December 2018.
Adjunct English Instructor, Department of English, Mississippi State University. August 2015- Spring 2019.
Lead Advisor—Bulldog Toastmasters, Mississippi State University, May 2015-August 2016.

Research Interests

Early United States History
Modern United States History
Identity History
Religious History
Material Culture Studies

Gender History

Publications

Dill, Anna L., Cheryl A. Justice, Sue S. Minchew, Laura M. Pate, Chih-hsuan Wang, and Candace B. Weed. “The Use of the LASSI (The Learning and Study Strategies Inventory) to Predict and Evaluate the Study Habits and Academic Performance of Students in a Learning Assistance Program.” Journal of College Reading and Learning 45.1 (2014): 20-34. Print.

Presentations

“Religious Publications for Jewish Children: A Close Study of a Jewish Catechism Published in 1856 New York,” American Antiquarian Society’s 2023 Summer Seminar, Material Religion: Objects, Images, and Books, Worcester, MA. June 25-30, 2023.

“Inscribed on Doorposts and Gates: Constructing Spaces of Jewish Identity and Community in Protestant Colonial America,” The Consortium on the Revolutionary Era, 1750-1850, 53^rd Annual Meeting, Fort Worth, TX. February 2-4, 2023.

“‘She distinguished her pious Care in imprinting on the tender Minds of her Children’: Resisting her Children’s Intermarriages by a Jewish Matriarch,” The Southeastern American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 47th Annual Meeting (Virtual Conference). February 25-27, 2021.

“Retaining the Academically Distressed Student at Mississippi State University through the Learning Skills Support Program,” National College Learning Center Association Conference, Tampa, Florida. September 28-October 1, 2016.

Professional Associations

The Southeastern American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
Lambda Alpha National Anthropological Honor Society
National College Learning Center Association

Ph.D—Mississippi State University, in progress
Master of Arts—Mississippi State University, 2009
Bachelor of Arts—Mississippi State University, 2007

Mississippi State University
LSK 1033—Fundamentals of Achievement—Fall 2009-present
LSK 1131—Fundamentals of Success—Fall 2009-present
LSK 4000—Nine Habits to Student Success—Fall 2012-Spring 2018
EN 0103—Basic English—Spring 2008-Spring 2009
EN 1103—English Composition I—Fall 2008-Spring 2019
EN 1123—English Composition II—Fall 2008-Spring 2019

Professional Employment
Coordinator/Instructor—The Learning Skills Support Program (LSSP), The Learning Center, Mississippi State University, Fall 2009-present
Adjunct Online English Instructor, Department of English, Southern New Hampshire University. May 2018-July 2019.
Adjunct Online English Instructor, Department of English, Itawamba Community College. August 2009-December 2018.
Adjunct English Instructor, Department of English, Mississippi State University. August 2015- Spring 2019.
Lead Advisor—Bulldog Toastmasters, Mississippi State University, May 2015-August 2016.

Early United States History
Modern United States History
Identity History
Religious History
Environmental History
Agricultural History

Dill, Anna L., Cheryl A. Justice, Sue S. Minchew, Laura M. Pate, Chih-hsuan Wang, and 
Candace B. Weed. “The Use of the LASSI (The Learning and Study Strategies
Inventory) to Predict and Evaluate the Study Habits and Academic Performance of
Students in a Learning Assistance Program.” Journal of College Reading and Learning
45.1 (2014): 20-34. Print.

“‘She distinguished her pious Care in imprinting on the tender Minds of her Children’: Resisting her Children’s Intermarriages by a Jewish Matriarch,” The Southeastern American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 47th Annual Meeting (Virtual Conference). February 25-27, 2021.
“Retaining the Academically Distressed Student at Mississippi State University through the Learning Skills Support Program,” National College Learning Center Association Conference, Tampa, Florida. September 28-October 1, 2016.

The Southeastern American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
Lambda Alpha National Anthropological Honor Society
National College Learning Center Association