I translated my journalistic curiosity into a love for the extremely long-form article otherwise known as a dissertation to examine how people understand identities in decline when a political and cultural identity is based on economically obsolete practices (think New England whaling).

While preparing for my comprehensive exams, I realized that historiography of the 1980s had skipped over an event I vaguely remembered – the tractorcades on Washington and the movement to save the “family farm.” My research turned to farmers’ grassroots mobilization during this period; I am filling in some of the blank spaces regarding the very strong rural support that President Ronald Reagan enjoyed. A whole generation of work on conservatism has focused on high politics, intellectual history, religious history, and suburban voters while neglecting the voices and experiences of some of the most consistently self-described conservative voters in America.

At the same time, my research reflects a growing sense of disillusionment and disenfranchisement among rural voters who see themselves as trying to preserve a practice and lifestyle that is central not only to their own senses of self, but to what they see as the character of America as a whole.

My training as a historian emphasizes interdisciplinary and methodologically diverse perspectives. Trained by one intellectual historian and one cultural historian, I have also completed graduate fields in history of capitalism, gender history, and American political development (APD) in our Political Science Department.