
Position Title
PhD Candidate, Modern US History
Education
- BA in History, University of California, Santa Cruz (2011)
- MA in History, San Jose State University (2015)
About
My dissertation, tentatively entitled Shadow Diplomacy: The United States, the Portuguese Empire and the Cold War, 1961-1974, examines diplomacy in the shadows of State Department orthodoxy by narrating the stories of other state and non-state groups invested in the diplomatic process. Shadow Diplomacy argues that historically marginalized, minimized and misunderstood actors not only demanded their place in the diplomatic process, they defined the exigencies of the Cold War. This dissertation challenges Cold War historiography in several ways. First, it reveals the centrality of Portugal's empire to the most crucial of Cold War battles, including: anti-communism, authoritarianism, civil rights, decolonization and the role of Congress and intelligence agencies. Second, it moves Cold War history away from elite policymakers. Third, it reinforces the primacy of a transnational approach to the study of history, something for which Portuguese historians have long called.
Research Focus
Major Field: U.S.
Minor Field: World
Focus: Cold War foreign policy and intelligence; political and transnational history; U.S. and Portugal during the Guerra do Ultramar (Portuguese Colonial War), 1961-74
Teaching
Prison University Project, San Quentin State Prison
Co-Instructor, HIS 102: Post-Civil War US, Spring semester 2019
Designated History Tutor, Fall semester 2015
University of California, Davis
Graduate Student Researcher: Davis Humanities Institute, Fall 2018 and Spring 2019; Institute for Social Sciences, Fall 2017
Reader: History 134A: The Age of Revolution, Spring 2019
Lectures: American Studies 10: The Neoliberal University, March 2019
Teaching Assistant: American Studies 10: Intro to American Studies, Winter 2019; History 17A: Early US, Winter 2017 and Spring 2018; History 17B: Modern US, Spring 2017 and Winter 2018; History 174CD: US after WWII, Spring 2016
San Jose State University
History 170 Lecture: Populism & Progressivism, World War I and Peace & Prosperity, June 2016
History 170 Lecture: American Imperialism, June 2016
History 170 Lecture: Cold War, Civil Rights Movement and JFK & LBJ, June 2015
History 170 Lecture: Great Depression & New Deal, World War II and the Home Front, June 2015
History 181 Lecture: Civil Rights Movement, June 2014
Awards
Russell J. and Dorothy S. Bilinski Educational Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, 2019-2020
Fulbright US Student Study/Research Award, Portugal, 2019-2020 declined
Michigan State University Libraries Travel Grant, 2019
Oberlin College Frederick B. Artz Summer Research Grant, 2019
JFK Library Foundation Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. Fellowship, 2019
LBJ Presidential Foundation Moody Research Grant, 2019
Dirksen Congressional Center Research Grant, 2018
Herbert Hoover Presidential Foundation Research Grant, 2018
UCD History Department Emile G. Scholz Prize for Most Outstanding 2nd Year Paper, 2017
UCD History Department Research Fellowship, Spring 2017
UCD History Department Reed-Smith Research Award, Summer 2016
UCD Provost’s Fellowship in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, 2015-2016
SJSU History Department James H. High Memorial Scholarship, 2015
SJSU History Department Mildred Gentry Winters Graduate Scholarship, 2015
SJSU McLaughlin Fellow, 2013-2014