My teaching interests cover a wide-range of themes and periods in American history. I teach chronological courses on Antebellum America and the Civil War era as well as thematic classes about environmental history, borderlands, military history, the West, the South, and the Vietnam War.

I have two principal research and writing interests, both of which are connected to environmental history. First, I am fascinated by the interplay between nature and warfare throughout American history. My first book, Extreme Civil War (LSU Press, 2016), explores the nature and warfare dynamic within civilian-based warfare during the Civil War. My next related project is a broader narrative history of the Civil War in the Trans-Mississippi through an environmental lens. I have also done some work on the Vietnam War that led to a collection of essays, co-edited with Geoffrey W. Jensen, titled Beyond the Quagmire: New Interpretations of the Vietnam War (UNT Press, 2019).

My second research focus centers on bears—Black Bears (Ursus americanus) and Grizzly Bears (Ursus arctos horribilis)—in American history. I am chiefly interested in their place within the evolving nature of American culture and identity. My current book project, tentatively titled “Bears: An American History,” is a narrative history of bruins and humans from pre-Columbian America to the twentieth century.

When not teaching or writing about the natural environment, I try my best to get out into it—mostly by way of wandering around in the woods and fly fishing.