Advisor: Dr. Patricia Sullivan

Education: University of Georgia, BA in History & Economics

Bio: A student of South Carolina since 2018, I study late 20th century cultural American history. Specifically, I examine the rise of mass incarceration and policing in NYC and Oakland since the 1970s through the lens of hip-hop culture. My work predominately focuses on hip-hop as a form of political activism and community building, how it fought against the punitive turn of policing, and how police used hip-hop as a proxy to target all Black people. This work has also allowed me to explore American urban and political history and the changing conceptions of race in the United States. As well, I am interested in radical social movements of all kinds, and especially how art subverts yet simultaneously supports white, capitalist hegemony.

As a Public Historian, I have gotten the local Leevy's Funeral Home, a Black-owned and operated funeral home that has served as a major center of Black politics since the 1950s, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. I have also, as a Research Fellow, done work with the American Association for State and Local History on historic site visitation across the country.