Expertise
Modern French, European and Colonial HistoryResearch Interests
History of Leisure, Tourism and Consumer Culture; French Colonial and Environmental History; Histories of French RuralismBiosketch
I received my MA, MPhil, and Ph.D. from Columbia University and have been at UML since 2006. My scholarly research primarily addresses questions of place and displacement within Modern French, European, and Colonial History. My current project considers the colonial dynamics of le grand air (the "outdoors") in Morocco under the French Protectorate, through a variety of sites and practices---children's vacation colonies and scouting, "Alpine" mountaineering and skiing, colonial hill stations and urban parks.
My first book, "Enacting Brittany: Tourism and Culture in Provincial France (Ashgate 2012)" examined the historical conversion of France’s westernmost region of Brittany into an arena of modern place promotion and tourist exchange. My second book was a co-edited collection entitled "Place and Locality in Modern French History (Bloomsbury Academic, 2014)," which analyzed the changing resonances and possibilities of local connection in modern and contemporary France. I have published articles in "French Historical Studies," the "Journal of Social History," the "Journal of Tourism History" and other scholarly journals, as well as multiple chapters in edited collections. I have also served as North American editor of the journal "Modern and Contemporary France."