About

My work spans modern American political, cultural, and foreign policy history, with particular interests in the American war in Vietnam, the American carceral state, and the Black freedom movement.

My first book, A Shadow on Our Hearts: Soldier-Poetry, Morality, and the American War in Vietnam, scrutinises the vast body of American soldier-poetry of the war and uses it to examine the history and morality of the conflict. This builds on my previous publications about the veteran and poet W.D. Ehrhart, moral responsibility and war, and the soldier-poetry anthology Winning Hearts and Minds: War Poems by Vietnam Veterans. I have also written about the debate regarding historically problematic statues and the theory and practice of ethically informed historical inquiry.

Currently, my work investigates the manifestations and ramifications of American carcerality, both in the US and overseas. This includes a project that explores the history and memory of America’s treatment of Vietnamese prisoners during the war in Vietnam, as well as a project that maps the ways in which the conflict influenced the development of the carceral state back in the US. I am also beginning work on a project that examines the intersections between the war in Vietnam and the Black freedom movement.

My teaching experience parallels and draws on my research in modern American history. I have taught a range of modules and topics in American history, American Studies, and historical theory and method.

I received my BA and MA from the University of Sheffield and my PhD from the University of Cambridge. Subsequently, I was a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Sussex, where I carried out my research project “A Moral History of the American War in Vietnam,” and a Researcher in American Studies at the Swedish Institute for North American Studies at Uppsala University.

I am a board member of the Swedish Association for American Studies.