As a historian, writer, educator, and musician, I have always been drawn to the places where ideas and feeling meet: the hush of a theater before the lights go down, the candor of the blank page ready to be filled with letters, the electrified stillness of a classroom just before a real question takes hold, the ceremonial quiet of an archive where history waits to be imagined and explained. My mind is at home in those moments, listening closely, looking for deeper patterns, asking what a story reveals about power, memory, belief, and the ways people make meaning together. Whether I am standing before an audience, teaching in a classroom, performing onstage, or tracing a displaced history through scattered records, I am guided by the same impulse: to connect thought with action, creativity with purpose, and knowledge with the shared life of a community.

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The guiding principals of my work include the belief that every person can be — and deserves the chance to be —creative and talented; that every life holds a meaningful, connected story; and that the arts are the strongest medium for connecting people, stories, and communities together.

 

My work as a public historian is grounded in the belief that understanding the past can help us engage more thoughtfully with the present and future. At the center of this work is my commitment to doing history in community, helping people better understand the lives they have lived, inherited, and continue to shape.

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As a musician, I have performed in 48 states and 9 countries. Music has taught me that creativity can open doors, build connection, and deepen our shared humanity. It has also given me the chance to see more of the world and better understand myself and other people.

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As a published academic and critic, my writing has appeared in works ranging from encyclopedias to newsweeklies. My training in sociology continues to shape how I think, helping me connect personal experience to larger social forces.

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I currently work at the historic Belcourt Theatre in Nashville, Tennessee — Music City’s oldest neighborhood theater and continuously operating cinema — where I research and lead education and engagement programming focused on local, state, and national film history. I have also written a book on The Belcourt's hundred years, and Nashville’s relationship with cinema, in honor of the theater's recent centennial. It is under contract with Vanderbilt University Press, slated to be released in the Fall of 2026.

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When I'm not working, I'm very often outside — hiking or fishing — or at home moonlighting as an amateur chef and cuddling my pug.

 

In my spare time, I am in a movie theater, out dancing, or checking out a museum or art exhibition.

 

 

 

For more information about my career, past projects, or current work, please get in touch.​