Storm over Dumas, Hartley County, Texas, May 2021

Research at the Massachusetts Historical Society Library, August 1, 2022

Reading room at the Massachusetts Historical Society Library

I spent two productive weeks at the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston as partial fulfillment of the Malcolm and Mildred Freiberg Fellowship. I will complete the fellowship remotely over the next several weeks. Thanks to Dr. Kanisorn Wongsrichanalai for the hospitality and to the entire staff for their professionalism. The research will contribute significantly to my book This Empire Grim by illuminating the connections and conversations between the authors and poets who expressed their shared anxieties about US empire through gothic storytelling. In the reading room, I worked under this banner that celebrated the work of William Lloyd Garrison and his newspaper The Liberator, an apt reminder that many of the authors and poets who questioned US expansionist policies were also ardent abolitionists.

The Center Hosts the Greater Gulf Symposium, April 19, 2022

Back standing L to R: Michael Bailey, Brendan Gillis, Jimmy Bryan, Jeff Forret, Rachel Stephens. Front L to R: Jane Plummer, Kayci Merritte, María Hammack.

Since announcing my appointment as director of the Center for History and Culture of Southeast Texas and the Upper Gulf Coast at Lamar University, I have been preoccupied with learning my new duties and have not posted any news. While keeping me busy, I have found rewarding this work with a wide range of scholars, students, and community leaders. A highlight of the Center's year was hosting the inaugural Greater Gulf Symposium at Lamar University. We enjoyed the opportunity to spend the day with five scholars and workshop their essays that investigated different aspects of slavery, abolition, and emancipation in our region. Thanks to Symposium Fellows Michael Bailey (Boston College), María Hammack (McNeil Center for Early American Studies), Kayci Merritte (Brown University), Jane Plummer (Texas Christian University), and Rachel Stephens (University of Alabama) for sharing their research and engaging in convivial and rigorous discussions with me, assistant director Brendan Gillis, and Lamar history professor Jeff Forret. The Symposium Fellows will revise their essays based on these workshop discussions and submit them for review in an upcoming volume of The Texas Gulf Historical and Biographical Record.