Dark Waters uses cutting-edge digital mapping technology to tell the mysterious history of the Great Lakes, from the first European ships to the modern era. It brings to vivid life the stories of discovery, murder, and crime that are hidden beneath the waves of the world's great inland seas.
This project is the culmination of a year's work of research and design. Working with Carrie Sowden, director of research and archaeology at the NMGL, I have overseen every step of the Dark Waters digital creation. It is scheduled for launch along with the "Second Wave" museum expansion on June 28, 2025.
Smokin' em Out is the culmination of nearly three years of study into the effects of Iowa's attempt to ban all foreign languages during the First World War. It examines how national trends of nativism, nationalism, and ultra-patriotism influenced the politics of a state whose population was overwhelmingly descended from German and Scandinavian immigrants.
The project draws on rich primary sources such as newspapers, government reports, and oral histories to map out the ways in which Iowa's government attempted to force various ethnic groups to assimilate to a xenophobic perception of American identity. Using ArcGIS StoryMaps, it uses cutting-edge digital techniques to tell important narratives of intolerance, injustice, and cultural annihilation during the most formative period in modern history.
Smokin' em Out is currently scheduled for publication in 2026.
Heritage, Identity, and Politics is a digital history exhibit covering the impacts of Cold War themes on Egypt's 20th century cultural revolution. It positions the construction of the Aswan High Dam as a turning point in modern Egyptian history and tries to answer how it reshaped the nation's politics, demographics, and approach to heritage conservation.
It draws on rich primary and secondary source materials to demonstrate the enormous changes taking place between 1950-1980. It allows audiences to engage with primary source materials, including documents from UNESCO and the Egyptian government, as well as hundreds of photographs of the Nubian peoples who suffered at the hands of state-sponsored displacement.
Eclipsing History is a limited-series digital podcast created by graduate students of the BGSU Department of History. It was written, recorded, and edited by students under the supervision of Dr. Amilcar Challu and Dr. Cheryl Dong. It examines memory, power, identity, and science to tell a comprehensive story about how eclipses have shaped history in North America.
I wrote, recorded, and edited "Episode I: Total Eclipse of the Swamp, 1806." This episode deals with the struggles of Indigenous peoples under Tecumseh's Confederacy to resist American expansion, and the impact their resistance continues to have on modern Indigenous communities.
A collaborative effort between the UNI Department of History and UNI Black Student Union produced a comprehensive digital history of the BSU from its start in the 1960s to the 2010s. It focuses on how civil rights activism has shaped UNI's campus and how its legacy continues to inform the relationship between the university and its marginalized students.