I am a cultural historian interested in how memory—both collective and personal—shapes the stories communities tell about themselves. My work explores how the past is carried in songs, images, performances, and monuments, and how these forms of cultural expression become repositories of identity, conflict, and meaning.

At Stephen F. Austin State University, where I’m a Professor of History, I teach courses that examine the intersections of race, culture, information, and public memory. I’m especially interested in how different media—recordings, photographs, archives, film—function as systems for storing and transmitting historical knowledge.

My most recent book, Reckoning with the Devil: Nathan Bedford Forrest in Myth and Memory (LSU Press, 2024), traces how one of the most polarizing figures of the Civil War became a mythic symbol in the American imagination. I am also the author of Cuttin’ Up: How Early Jazz Got America’s Ear (University Press of Kansas, 2009), and co-editor of The Politics and Power of Bob Dylan’s Live Performances (Routledge, 2023), with a second Dylan volume forthcoming in 2026..

Beyond the classroom and page, I am a founding member of the Teaching Woody Guthrie Collective, a group devoted to exploring how music can make history come alive in classrooms and communities. My Substack newsletter, A Song and a Mood, extends this work into public writing on memory, music, and culture.