Research Areas

I am broadly interested in histories of mapping and measurement, particularly in the context of Atlantic empires and their appropriation of Native American land. My dissertation compares cartographic practices during three imperial transitions: the French-British regime change in Quebec in the 1760s, the Spanish-French-American transition in Louisiana in the early 1800s, and the U.S. conquest of Mexican California in 1848. My work explores land tenure as a key site of legal, political, and scientific representation and contestation.

Raised in rural Vermont, I began my training in history with Native literary scholar Lisa Brooks at Harvard University. After receiving my BA in History & Literature, I spent several years as a public historian. I served as a community Civil War project coordinator and women's history researcher in Vermont, and historian-in-residence at a Colorado artist residency working on hard rock mine remediation. After relocating to Montreal, Quebec, I embarked on a MA degree at McGill University with Allan Greer, which piqued my interest in Atlantic history and cartography. I've followed these interests to UC Berkeley, where I've added a distinctively Californian component to my research.