Curriculum Vitae
Education
Ph.D. 2000 University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA Dissertation: Dangerous to Liberty: The United States Senate, 1789-1821
MA 1993 University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA Thesis: The Bankruptcy Act of 1841: A Legislative History
BA with Honors 1988 Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
Employment
Georgetown University, Washington D.C., James Madison Memorial Foundation Summer Institute, Professor, Summer 2014-Present
University of Richmond, Richmond, VA, Affiliated Research Scholar, May 2019 - present, Adjunct Visiting Assistant Professor, January 2000 – May 2019, Adjunct Instructor of History, September – December 1999
Books
The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798: Testing the Constitution. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016
Articles and Book Chapters
“The Alien and Sedition Acts and the Quasi-War,” Journal of Policy History, Special Issue on “Free Speech and War,” 35, 4 (2023), 454-474
“Political Culture in a Republic,” in The Cambridge History of the American Revolution. Marjoleine Kars, Michael A. McDonnell, and Andrew Schocket, eds. (2025)
“Truth in the News,” Madison Notes 28 (Fall 2020), 37.
“Immigrants and the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798,” History Now, Fall 2018.
“When is Dissent Treason,” History News Network, October 30, 2016 (https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/164134).
“Congress,” Encyclopedia of the New American Nation. Eds. Paul Finkelman, et al. NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2005.
“The Special Relationship: The Senate and the States, 1789-1801,” in The House & Senate in the 1790s: Petitioning, Lobbying, and Institutional Development. Kenneth R. Bowling and
Donald Kennon, eds.(Athens: Ohio University Press for the United States Capitol Historical Society, 2002)
Contributor, Facts on File Encyclopedia, Revolution and New Nation (1754-1820), Paul A. Gilje, ed.
Book Reviews
Moats, Sandra, Navigating Neutrality: Early American Governance in the Turbulent Atlantic. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2021 in William and Mary Quarterly 3rd series, 81
(April 2024), 459-463
Ekirch, A. Roger. American Sanctuary: Mutiny, Martyrdom, and National Identity in the Age of Revolution. New York: Pantheon Books, 2017 in Journal of the Early Republic 39 (Summer 2019),
356-359
Bird, Wendell. Press and Speech Under Assault: The Early Supreme Court Justices, the Sedition Act of 1798, and the Campaign Against Dissent. NY: Oxford University Press, 2016 in American
Journal of Legal History 57(March 2017), 118–119
Ratcliffe, Donald. The One-Party Presidential Contest: Adams, Jackson, and 1824's Five-Horse Race. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2015 in The Journal of Southern History 83
(February 2017), 165-167
Rasor, Paul and Richard E. Bond, eds. From Jamestown to Jefferson: The Evolution of Religious Freedom in Virginia. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2011 in Virginia Magazine of
History and Biography 119, 4 (2011), 394-5
Raphael, Ray. Founders: The People who Brought You a Nation. New Press, 2009 in The Journal of American History (June 2010), p.164-165
Fischer, David H. Liberty and Freedom. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005 in The Journal of the Early Republic (Spring 2006), 128-130
Editorial Roles
Federal History Journal, Assistant Editor, 2024-present
Conferences and Public Lectures
Virginia Consortium of Early Americanists (VCEA), Richmond, VA, January 2020, Commentator: “Intensive Workshop”
Society for Historians of the Early American Republic Conference, Columbus, OH, July 2003, Plenary Session: Marbury v. Madison: Bicentennial Considerations, Presenter: “Marbury v. the
Senate”
Northeast American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Conference, Durham, NH, December 1999, Presenter: “George Washington and the Senate”
Society for Historians of the Early American Republic Conference, Lexington, KY, July 1999, Presenter: “The Senate and the States, 1789-1821”
United States Capitol Historical Society Conference on the History of Congress, Washington, D.C., April 1999, Presenter: “The Special Relationship: The Senate and the States, 1789-1801”
“The Alien and Sedition Acts,” Law Day, Suffolk County New York Bar Association, May 2025
“The Alien and Sedition Acts,” Interview, History Camp, February 2022
“The Alien and Sedition Acts: Testing the Constitution,” Webinar, Historic New England, August 2021
Fellowships and Awards
Society of the Cincinnati Research Grant, 2000
Dirksen Congressional Center, Congressional Research Grant, 1996, 2020
Society of the Cincinnati Research Grant, Summer 1994
Professional Affiliations
Society for Historians of the Early American Republic (SHEAR)
Fall Line Early Americanists (FLEA)