Curriculum Vitae

Current Appointment

California State University, Fullerton, 2019-Present

  • Assistant Professor of American Studies

Education

George Mason University, 2012-2019

  • PhD, History
  • MA, History and Art History, 2014
  • Graduate Certificate, Women and Gender Studies, 2014

Indiana University, 2008-2012

  • BA, History and Political Science (with distinction)
  • Minor: Near Eastern Languages and Culture

Awards and Fellowships

Presentations

  • “The Queer Battle for Capitol Hill: Marines and Violence at D.C. Gay & Lesbian Nightlife,” Invited speaker, to be presented at the 2020 Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., April 2-5, 2020
  • “Sex and Desire,” panel commentator, American Studies Association’s 2019 Annual Meeting, Honolulu, Hawaii, November 10, 2019
  • “The Queer T-shirt in Our National History,” Invited PLATO lecture, Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington, November 1, 2019
  • “(In)Visible Histories: Roundtable Discussion on LGBT Rights 50 Years after Stonewall” Invited talk at United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C., June 26, 2019
  • “Protect the Blood: Visual Culture and Black Resistance to the Mid Atlantic AIDS Crisis,” Committee on LGBT History’s and the GLBT Historical Society’s Queer History Conference 2019, San Francisco, California, June 17, 2019
  • “Our Queer Closets: Understanding Global LGBTQ History Though T-shirts” Invited lecture at the Worcester Historical Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts, May 30, 2019
  • “Sexual Politics in the Reagan Era,” panel chair, Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania April 26, 2019
  • “Where Else Can We Go?: The Black Gay Bar in the Urban Mid Atlantic,”  American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, January 6, 2019
  • “A Mini Rage: Parsing Race & Racism in Late 20th-Century Queer Activist Apparel,” American Studies Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, November 10, 2018.
  • “Cops and Queers: The History of the Police and the LGBTQ+ Community in DC,” Panel Organizer, Washington, D.C., Thurgood Marshall Center, October 18, 2018
  • “Women Leadership, Lesbian Activists & the DC AIDS Crisis,” Panel Organizer, Washington, D.C., Shaw (Watha T. Daniel) Library, May 9, 2018
  • “Clubs and Equality: Fighting Discrimination at Philadelphia’s Gay Bars in the 1970s and 1980s” Invited Lecture, William Way LGBT Community Center, Philadelphia, PA, December 10, 2017
  • “Covering the Queer Capital: The Washington Blade, A Historical Discussion” Shaw (Watha T. Daniel) Library, Washington D.C., April 26, 2017
  • “Celia the Queen: Historical Memory and the Queen of Salsa,” Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum, Washington, D.C., March 30, 2017
  • “Saying Yes to LGBT Research,” Invited Lecture, HE461: LGBT Studies in Literature, Professor Marlon Moore, United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, March 28, 2017
  • “Say It Like You Mean It: Graduate Education and Creative Expression in Thinking, Making, and Doing History,” American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado, January 7, 2016
  • “Carding and the Clubs: Fighting Discrimination at Washington Gay Bars, 1973-1985,” 43rd Annual Conference on D.C. History, Washington D.C., November 5, 2016
  • “Rainbow Heritage and History: Preserving The Records of DC’s LGBT Communities,” Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, Washington D.C., October 15, 2016
  • “Gay Activism in Washington During the 1960s and 1970s,” Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum, Washington, D.C., June 25, 2016
  • “Wearing What You Preach: Making an LGBT Digital Archive,” Gay American History @ 40 – Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer History: Past, Present, Future, New York, NY, May 6, 2016
  • “Defending Dullsville: Madonna, Protest, and Community Identity in the Heartland,” Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association National Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 2, 2015
  • “Ignoring Charles Stuart: Race, Reaction, and Redirection in Boston,” George Mason Department of History and Art History M.A. Colloquium, Fairfax, Virginia, April 21, 2014

Digital/Public History

Wearing Gay History, Creator, 2014-Present

Creator of online digital archive of historical LGBT t-shirts. The site includes a catalogue of nearly 4,000 t-shirts and several historical online exhibits. Site named one of the top 5 digital history projects of 2015 by Slate and awarded the 2016 National Council on Public History Student Project Award.

Mapping the Gay Guides, Co-Creator, 2020-Present

Co-creator of free, online digital mapping project that that allow users to explore and understand the history and culture of queer space in America from 1965-1980

Trump Protest Archive, Creator, 2017-Present

Creator of online material culture archive from protest events relating to the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump and the early part of his administration. The free online archive seeks photographic contributions from the public in the United States and across the globe.

African American AIDS History Project, Research Fellow, 2018

With generous funding from the Elton John AIDS Foundation, I work on the digitization and preservation of materials related to the history of black AIDS activism in the United States, including indexing of oral histories and the creation of online museum exhibitions.

Rainbow History Project, Board of Directors, 2016-Present

Comprised of archivists, community activists, and historians, the RHP collects and promotes an active knowledge of the history, arts, and culture relevant to sexually diverse communities in metropolitan Washington DC.

OutHistory, Contributing Blog Editor, 2016-Present

Contributing blog editor to award winning site and online museum that documents the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities. Founded by Jonathan Ned Katz.

Wearing History: An Exhibit on LGBT History through T-shirts

Designer and creator of a physical exhibit featuring T-shirts and other artifacts from the Chris Gonzalez Library and Archives located in Indianapolis. This exhibit on LGBT Indiana history was on display at the Indiana University GLBT office in 2012.

Teaching

Courses taught (2012-Present):

  • American Nightlife
  • Civil Rights and American Culture
  • Race in American Culture
  • Introduction to American Studies (Anxiety and the Making of America)
  • War and American Culture
  • Theories and Methods of American Studies
  • The Digital Past / The Progressive Era
  • United States History I + II
  • Women in American History
  • History of Western Civilization
  • World History

National Endowment for the Humanities, Project Associate

Publications

Books/Chapters

  • Because the Night: Nightlife and Remaking the Gay World, 1970-2000 (manuscript in progress)
  • “The Queer T-shirt,” in Living Out Loud: An Introduction to LGBTQ History, Society, and Culture, ed. Michael Murphy and Brytton Bjorngaard (Routledge, 2018)

Reviews

  • David K. Johnson, Buying Gay: How Physique Entrepreneurs Sparked a Movement (Columbia University Press, 2019), Journal of Social History (Fall 2019)
  • Julio Capó, Jr., Welcome to Fairyland: Queer Miami before 1940 (UNC Press, 2017), Journal of American Ethnic History (Spring 2019)
  • Jonah Markowitz and Tracy Wares, dirs. Political Animals (Kanopy Streaming, 2016), Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History Newsletter (Spring 2018)

Recent Media

Previous Work Experience

Morgan, Angel & Associates

Historian/Research Associate, 2015

Department of Veterans Affairs, National Cemetery Administration

History Intern, 2014

Indiana Magazine of History

Editorial Assistant, 2011-2012

Indiana University Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Student Support Services

Outreach Coordinator, 2010-2012

Indiana University Office for Women’s Affairs

Peer Educator, 2009-2012

Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women, Cairo, Egypt

Intern, 2010

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