Overview
My research focuses on the long history of human trafficking and its relationship to the evolution of racial ideology, humanitarian intervention, and immigration policy in North America and Europe.
In addition to mentoring both History and Public Policy graduate students, I regularly teach four undergraduate lecture courses entitled “Immigrant Dreams, American Realities: U.S. Immigration Policy History,” “Historicizing Whiteness,” “Human Trafficking, Past to Present,” and “North American Environmental History.” As a community activist in North Carolina, I have also taken a keen interest in voting rights and understanding how and why citizens do and do not vote.
Current Appointments & Affiliations
Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy
·
2025 - Present
Sanford School of Public Policy
Professor of History
·
2025 - Present
History,
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Bass Fellow
·
2011 - Present
Sanford School of Public Policy
Recent Publications
Counting Modern Slaves: Historicizing the Emancipatory Work of Numbers
Chapter · July 1, 2021 Historians, like contemporary activists, use numbers to make moral claims: the greater the number of victims, the greater the moral value of a given phenomenon. But rarely do historians or contemporary activists reflect on how they use numbers or historici ... Full text CiteLabor abolition and the politics of white victimhood: Rethinking the history of working-class racism
Journal Article Journal of the Early Republic · March 1, 2019 Full text CiteRecent Grants
Peck Visiting Associate Professor at Yale
Institutional SupportPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Yale University · 2017 - 2018View All Grants
Education, Training & Certifications
Yale University ·
1994
Ph.D.
Yale University ·
1991
M.A.
University of Wisconsin, Madison ·
1989
M.A.
Princeton University ·
1984
B.A.