Academic Interests
In general, I'm a cultural historian who is interested in the way in which complex systems of individual people come up with the larger processes, symbols, rituals, organizations, and narrative discourses that represent them as a whole. Consumer products, art, music, mass movements, etc. are all ways in which large groups choose to identify with others around them even if they don't communicate directly about those identities.
As a scholar, I am very interested in cross-disciplinary approaches to history. Historians, philosophers, cultural anthropologists, psychologists, administrators, economists, etc. all have ideas about how the past was formed and how the past evolved to become the present. Put another way, not only is the past a large, complex system, but so too can be the way in which we form ideas about the past. As such, I am encouraged to, and encourage others, to look for ideas about the past and to construct our interpretations of the past outside of the traditional box "history" as a discipline.
My CV is more detailed, but my general interests include:
Primary Fields
As a scholar, I am very interested in cross-disciplinary approaches to history. Historians, philosophers, cultural anthropologists, psychologists, administrators, economists, etc. all have ideas about how the past was formed and how the past evolved to become the present. Put another way, not only is the past a large, complex system, but so too can be the way in which we form ideas about the past. As such, I am encouraged to, and encourage others, to look for ideas about the past and to construct our interpretations of the past outside of the traditional box "history" as a discipline.
My CV is more detailed, but my general interests include:
Primary Fields
- Post-1870 American Cultural History
- Asian American History and American Ethnohistories
- Consumer Studies
- Food Studies/Foodways
- Private Culture
- Leisure, Family, and Childhood Studies
- Military History
- The History of Education
- African American History
- Gender History
- American Studies
- US Popular Culture
- U.S. Religious and Educational History
- Early Modern and Modern Japan
- Philosophy of History and Photography
- U.S.-Japan Diplomatic History
- History of Photography
- U.S. Historiography
- African-American History
Tangential Interests
I am also interested in the state of the academy and have aligned myself with several groups that seek to improve both instruction and research. Currently I am a general member of:
- The Resilience Consortium, which seeks to help students use creativity, determination, and the lessons learned from failure or disappointment to overcome perceived obstacles
- The Heterodox Academy, which seeks to improve intellectual diversity on college campuses