EDUCATION
Ph.D., History, The University of Alabama, 2009
M.Ed., Instructional Design, Western Governors University, 2019
M.A., History, The University of Alabama, 2005
B.A., History, Berry College, 2003
CURRENT POSITION
Western Governors University
Faculty Manager, World History and Geography, 2019-present
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Western Governors University
Faculty Manager, US History and World History, 2017-2019
Project Manager, General Education Program Development, 2015-2017
- Certified Scrum Master (2016)
Curriculum Program Manager (interim), General Education, January-May 2016
Course Instructor, General Education Social Sciences, 2011-2015
- Courses Taught: Themes and Applications in U.S. and World History, Survey of U.S. History, Survey of World History, Introduction to Geography
Course Instructor, Teachers College, Secondary Education Social Sciences, 2011-2013
- Courses Taught: U.S. History to 1865, U.S. History since 1865, World History to 1500, World History since 1500
Stephen F. Austin State University
Adjunct Faculty, Department of History, 2008-2011
The University of Alabama
Book Review Editor, Southern Historian, Department of History, University of Alabama, 2007-2008
Editor, Southern Historian, Department of History, University of Alabama, 2006-2007
Assistant Editor/Marketing Director, Southern Historian, Department of History, University of Alabama, 2005-2006
PUBLICATIONS
Books:
Ministers and Masters: Methodism, Manhood, and Honor in the Old South (Louisiana State University Press, 2011).
“The Making of the Southern Megachurch” (Louisiana State University Press, under contract).
Articles and Essays:
“The Megachurch in Christian History,” in Stephen Hunt, ed., Brill Handbook on Megachurches. (Brill Publishers, submitted and in production).
“‘Contraband’ Women: Gender, Race, and Resistance in Union Camps,” with Kristopher Teters, in Megan Bever and Laura Mammina, eds., American Discord: The Republic and Its People in the Civil War Era (Louisiana State University Press, submitted and in production).
“Sanctifying the SUV: Megachurches, the Prosperity Gospel, and the Suburban Christian,” in John Archer, Paul J.P. Sandul, and Katherine Solomonson, eds., Making Suburbia: New Histories of Everyday America (University of Minnesota Press, 2015), 240-258.
“Lakewood Church and the Roots of the Megachurch Movement in the South,” Southern Quarterly 50 (Fall 2012): 60-78.
Other Publications:
“A Popular Historian: A Conversation with James M. McPherson,” in Megan L. Bever and Scott A. Suarez, eds., Historian Behind the History: Conversations with Southern Historians (The University of Alabama Press, 2014), 46-64.
“The Sacred Circle: Evangelical Ministers and Family in Antebellum Alabama,” Alabama Heritage 106 (Fall 2012): 16-23.
“The Basement: Foundations of Alabama’s Largest Christian Youth Movement,” Alabama Heritage 100 (Spring 2011): 62-64.
FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS, AND AWARDS
Contributions to Mentoring Award, Western Governors University, 2015
Contributions to Mentoring Award, Western Governors University, 2014
Dedication to Student Success Award, Western Governors University, 2013
History Department Dissertation Fellowship, University of Alabama, Fall 2008
Graduate Council Research Grant, University of Alabama, 2007
Graduate Council Fellowship, University of Alabama, 2007-2008
Frank Lawrence Owsley Memorial Scholarship, Department of History, University of Alabama, 2007
Women’s Studies Award for Research on Women Department of Women’s Studies, University of Alabama, 2005
REFEREED PRESENTATIONS
“Teaching the College Survey as a Dual Enrollment Course: A Syllabus Workshop,” Louisiana Historical Association, Shreveport, Louisiana, March 2017.
“Show and Tell: Creating Videos with Animation and Images to Make Abstract Ideas Stick,” American Historical Association, Denver, Colorado, January 2017.
“The Traditional Survey is Dead, Long Live the Survey: Refashioning the U.S. and World Survey Courses for the Twenty-First Century, A Panel Discussion,” Louisiana Historical Association, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, March 2016.
“Adventures in On-Line Courses, Distance Learning, and MOOCs,” Louisiana Historical Association Annual Meeting, Hammond, Louisiana, March 2014.
“‘Delay Doesn’t Mean Denial’: Women and the Prosperity Gospel,” American Academy of Religion Southwest, Irving, Texas, March 2013.
“Lakewood Church: The Message of Utopianism in Megachurch Architecture,” Texas State Historical Association Annual Meeting, Houston, Texas, March 2012.
“Warehouses for God: Megachurches, Religious Consumerism, and Suburban Utopia,” Urban Historical Association, Las Vegas, Nevada, October 2010.
“Everything’s Bigger in Texas: Mega-Religion in Lone Star Suburbia,” Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association, Albuquerque, New Mexico, February 2010.
“The Spiritual Slave: Disobedience and Inverted Hierarchy in Antebellum Southern Methodist Rhetoric,” American Society of Church History, American Historical Association, New York City, New York, January 2009.
“’The Sacred Circle’: Evangelical Ministers and the Family in Antebellum Alabama,” Alabama Historical Association, Opelika, Alabama, April 2007.
BOOK REVIEWS PUBLISHED IN
Alabama Review
American Historical Review
Civil War History
The East Texas Historical Journal
H-Net Reviews
Journal of Mississippi History
The Journal of Southern History
The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
Southern Historian
MANUSCRIPT REVIEWS
Book Manuscripts
Oxford University Press, 2014 and 2018
University of Georgia Press, 2017 and 2018
Article Manuscripts
Louisiana History, 2019
Journal of Southern Religion, 2018
North Carolina Historical Review, 2018
Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 2016
Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s History, 2015
Alabama Review, September 2014 and 2015
Culture, Society & Masculinities, 2011
ONLINE AND NEWSPAPER PUBLISHING
Contributor, Huffington Post, July 2014-2018
Contributor, Religion in American History (academic blog), March 2011-2015
Columnist, “Faith Traditions,” Daily Sentinel (Nacogdoches, Texas), 2013-2015
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Member, Conrad Prize Committee (for best published work on Louisiana History), Louisiana Historical Association, 2017-2018
Member, Teaching History Committee, Louisiana Historical Association, August 2015-2018
Member, History Tuning Project, American Historical Association, January 2015-2016
COMMUNITY SERVICE
Historian, Clay House Restoration Project, African American Heritage Project, Nacogdoches, TX (pending contract)
Co-organizer, Lavender Prom, 2018 and 2019
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
American Historical Association
American Society of Church History
Louisiana Historical Association
Organization of American Historians
Southern Historical Association
