My primary teaching fields are modern European, East European, and urban history. At SUNY Geneseo I teach courses such as “Europe in the Age of Revolution,” Europe in the Shadow of War,” “War and Peace in the Balkans,” “Nationalism and Ethnic Violence,” a research methods seminar on urban history, a historiography class on Yugoslav history, and general education classes in the humanities. I also teach a first-year writing course titled “Punk Oral Histories” that introduced students to designing interviews, collecting personal narratives, and documenting subculture movements such as riot grrrl.

I recently developed an honors seminar on nostalgia that is related to my current research project The Youngest Yugoslavs. The course explores nostalgia as a powerful form of memory that reflects the present through its engagement with the past. During the semester, the course focuses on several major types of nostalgic expression across the world that reflect the particularities of their time and place: longing for lost homelands due to violence, war, and genocide; revisionist views of history; and yearning for individual and collective pasts.

At SUNY Geneseo, I also advise senior theses and direct independent studies on topics related to modern European history and urban history.

I am the faculty advisor for SUNY Geneseo’s Omicron-Rho chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, the national history honors society. In this role, I prepare students to present and publish their research. In 2021, I organized the annual Western/Central New York Phi Alpha Theta conference which highlighted undergraduate research from seven regional institutions. I am also the Student-Athlete Faculty Advocate at Geneseo.

When I was a lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Tennessee – Knoxville, students in my “Central European Cities” research seminar worked with rare maps from the region that had been recently acquired by the McClung Museum. They were featured here and here. Students in this course used a wide variety of sources and methods to complete individual research projects. They have used their work as a springboard to graduate school, Fulbright fellowships, and gainful employment.

While I worked as an Assistant Professor of History at Louisiana Tech University, I guided graduate student independent studies, examined comprehensive field exams, and advised thesis research and writing.

Please contact me to learn more about my pedagogical approaches and teaching innovation.

Tutoring and Mentoring

I have been volunteering with Girls Rock! Rochester, a rock’n’roll camp for girls and LGBTQ+ youth, since 2019. I lead workshops on the history of women in music and zine-making.

During most of 2017 and 2018, I worked as an instructor for Breakaway Test Prep, an education company that helps young adults prepare for college. I taught students reading, writing, and test-taking skills they need to succeed, and I also tutored coursework ranging from art history to US history. I worked with students in one-on-one as well as group settings. In addition, I trained new instructors in the best practices of teaching, tutoring, and interaction with students and parents.

At SUNY Geneseo, I am Safe Zone trained ally. At the University of Tennessee, I was a faculty member of the Safe Zone Network, and at the University of Illinois I was part of the LGBT Ally Network. As a graduate student at the University of Illinois, I mentored new students as they settled into the social and intellectual life of the university and counseled them on how to navigate the demands and resources of grad school.