Biography

I am a social historian who focuses on the exclusion and inclusion of “outsiders” in France during and after the Second World War. My first book examined the effects of material shortages on attitudes toward the Vichy government and on the treatment of outsiders including refugees, Jews, and Roma-Sinti in a rural region of southern France. More recently, I published a book related to the looting of Jewish apartments in Paris and the postwar process of restitution. My research has been supported by grants from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, and the American Philosophical Society. I have also been a visiting scholar at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris and a fellow at the Paris Institute for Advanced Studies. My current research follows two different lines of inquiry: one focuses on the geography of the Holocaust in Paris, and the other focuses on the American Friends Service Committee’s humanitarian aid to France.

I teach a wide range of courses related to Modern European History, including Western Civilization, Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, France and World War II, and War and Society in addition to courses related to the French Revolution and the History of France. I have led study abroad courses in England and France, and was a co-PI on a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to develop a series of related courses across various departments.

Education

• Ph.D. in History, 2003. University of Iowa
• M.A. in History, 1998. University of Iowa
• B.A. in History, 1995. Texas A&M University