Degrees

Ph.D., Brown University (2024)
M.A., University of Chicago (2014)
B.A., Macalester College (2013)

Research Interests

My research interests revolve primarily around gender, sexuality, race, and power, themes that have taken me from the early Middle Ages all the way into the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. I am most at home in the western Mediterranean, where I focus on the multi-confessional polities of al-Andalus, Iberia, and Sicily/Naples, as well as their counterparts along the Mediterranean shores of Africa. I am also deeply concerned with memory and the way(s) that the public engages with the remote past, an interest that spans museum exhibitions, historical tourism, and pop culture (primarily television, film, and video games). 

I am currently at work on a book project titled “The Secret Life of Concubines,” which examines the role of concubines in al-Andalus and Christian Iberia and Sicily from the perspectives of dynastic and community identity formation, power consolidation, and motherhood. Rather than reproduce the understandings of these individuals found in modern media—which frequently define concubines by their private sexual roles and depict concubinage as almost exclusively emotional act—I am interested in the ‘real’ secret life of concubines: their social and political importance.

Teaching Interests

I am excited to teach courses on a variety of topics pertaining to premodern European history, though I specialize in teaching histories of gender and power. My courses include general surveys of the Middle Ages (500-1500 CE) and the Iberian Peninsula (700–1700 CE), intermediate-level classes focused on the tools and sources for examining race in a premodern context, as well as upper-level offerings on concubinage in Europe and around the premodern globe and on mobility and travel in the medieval and early modern eras. My first course at Amherst concerns something I have a long-standing passion for: the machinery and mirage of female rulership across the premodern European continent. 

In addition to these offerings, I aim to develop interdisciplinary courses that create opportunities for students to learn curatorial skills and collaborate on exhibitions using campus collections and spaces.

Scholarly and Professional Activities 

Current member of the Steering Committee for Medievalists of Color (MoC)

Fulbright Scholar, Spain (2020–2021)

Selected Publications

“Concubinage in New Contexts: Interfaith Borrowings and the Rulers of Castile-León in the High Middle Ages.” In Authorship, Worldview, and Identity in Medieval Europe, edited by Christian Raffensperger, 60-82. New York: Routledge, 2022.

“Unknown: A Concubine by Many Names.” In Portraits of Medieval Europe, 800-1400, edited by Christian Raffensperger and Erin Thomas Dailey, 99-108. New York: Routledge, 2024.

Links

Prior to the release of the Netflix series Queen Charlotte, I sat down with the “Vulgar History” podcast to talk about Queen Charlotte’s medieval African ancestry – listen to the episode here 

For a more in-depth analysis of Queen Charlotte’s concubinal ancestor Madragana, watch the recording of my talk from Race B4 Race: Politics 

If you are an undergraduate, graduate student, or colleague looking to learn more about Medievalists of Color (MoC), please consider checking out the website or reaching out via email