
Phone
Office Location
314 Conklin Hall
175 University Ave.
Newark, NJ 07102
Courses Taught
Undergraduate
Contemporary US History
Introduction to LGBTQ Studies
Urban Sexualities in the Modern US
Senior Seminar: Civil Rights and Social Movements
Graduate
Introduction to American Studies
Race and Sexual Politics in Modern America
Gender in US Politics and Culture Since 1900
Sexuality and Sexual Politics
Awards
Visiting Scholar, Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, Harvard University, 2017-2018
John Boswell Prize awarded to Queer Clout, Committee on LGBT History, 2017
Moody Research Grant, Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, 2015-2016
Rutgers Research Council Grant, 2013-2014
Faculty Fellow, Institute for Research on Women, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, 2011-2012
Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellow, 2008-2009
James C. Hormel Fellowship in Lesbian & Gay Studies, 2007-2008
Education
Ph.D., University of Chicago, 2009
M.A., University of Chicago, 2003
B.A., Swarthmore College, 2001
Expertise
Modern U.S.; sexuality, gender, and LGBTQ history; political culture, social movements, urban, African American
Publications
Book
Queer Clout: Chicago and the Rise of Gay Politics (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016; paperback, August 2017)
• Winner of the 2017 John Boswell Prize (awarded by the Committee on LGBT History, an affiliated society of the AHA)
• Finalist for the 2017 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Studies
Articles and Book Chapters
“The Fall of Walter Jenkins and the Hidden History of the Lavender Scare,” in Intimate States: Gender, Sexuality, and Governance in U.S. History, Margot Canaday, Robert Self, and Nancy Cott, eds. (University of Chicago Press, 2021), 211-234
“AIDS and the Urban Crisis: Stigma, Cost, and the Persistence of Racism in Chicago, 1981-1996,” in Beyond the Politics of the Closet: Gay Rights and the American State Since the 1970s, Jonathan Bell, ed. (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020), 83-99
“The Gay Rights President,” in The Presidency of Barack Obama: A First Historical Assessment, Julian E. Zelizer, ed. (Princeton University Press, 2018), 95-110
“Ralph Arnold’s Queer Chicago: A Life at the Intersections,” in The Many Hats of Ralph Arnold: Art, Identity, and Politics, Greg Foster-Rice, ed. (Chicago: Museum of Contemporary Photography, 2018), 113-126
“The Law and Order Origins of Urban Gay Politics,” Journal of Urban History 41:5 (September 2015), 1-11
“Queer Law and Order: Sex, Criminality, and Policing in the Late Twentieth-Century United States,” Journal of American History 102:1 (June 2015), 61-72
“A Community’s Response to the Problem of Invisibility: The Queer Newark Oral History Project” (with Darnell L. Moore, Beryl Satter, and Whitney Strub), QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking 1:2 (Summer 2014), 1-14
“Picturing Same-Sex Marriage in the Antebellum United States: The Union of ‘Two Most Excellent Men’ in Longstreet’s ‘A Sage Conversation’” (with Simon Stern), Journal of the History of Sexuality 19:2 (May 2010), 197-222
“Not a Soldier, Not a Slacker: Conscientious Objectors and Male Citizenship in the United States during the Second World War,” Gender & History 19:3 (November 2007), 519-542
Op-Eds, Blogs, and Popular Publications
“How the Black Press Helped Pave the Way for Gay Rights,” Washington Post, Made By History, August 5, 2019
“Hollywood First Imagined a Female President in 1964. What’s Changed?” Slate, November 8, 2016
“The Path to 2016’s Incredibly LGBTQ-Friendly Democratic Platform Began in 1972,” Slate, July 25, 2016
“Gimme Shelter: Newark’s LGBT Community Has Long Been Striving for Safety,” Star-Ledger, June 19, 2016 (with Whitney Strub)
“Revisiting the Historical Record on HIV/AIDS, From Reagan to Clinton,” Slate, March 14, 2016
“Beyond Stonewall: How Gay History Looks Different from Chicago,” Slate, February 1, 2016
“Stonewall and the Politics of Memory,” Process History: A Blog for American History, November 5, 2015
“Queer Law and Order,” Process History: A Blog for American History, July 14, 2015
“Transgender Students Build on Feminism to Question Male Privilege,” Chronicle of Higher Education, October 18, 2015
“After Marriage Equality, What?” Dissent (Fall 2015), 76-79
“The Price of Gay Marriage,” New York Times, June 28, 2015
“Queer Newark,” OutHistory.org, March 2014 (with Whitney Strub)
“Matters of Justice,” The Record [Bergen County, NJ], January 29, 2012
“Barack Obama, Gay Marriage, and Chicago Politics: A Brief History,” in Obama and the Gays: A Political Marriage, Tracy Baim, ed. (Prairie Avenue Productions, 2010), 450-453
“Putting Obama’s Questionnaire in Context,” Windy City Times, January 14, 2009
“Gay Marriage and the Black Vote,” Los Angeles Times, August 14, 2008
“Martin Luther King’s Thoughts on a Future Black President” History News Network, August 30, 2008
“Before Obama Was a Favorite Son,” RealClearPolitics, April 7, 2008
“The Book That Should Be on President Bush’s Reading List,” History News Network, June 4, 2007
Associated Programs
Affiliate faculty member, Graduate Program in American Studies and Program in Women's and Gender Studies