I'm a historian, writer, and screenwriter, with a love of all things colorful and offbeat.

My first book The Sensational Past: How the Enlightenment Changed the Way We Use Our Senses (W. W. Norton, 2017) received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews. My second book Blue Jeans was released by Bloomsbury in January 2023 as part of the Object Lessons series.

I’m also the writer and producer of “Pasture Prime,” a short film premiering at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. The production was supported by a grant from the Austin Film Society, and I currently have several other projects in development.

My writing has appeared in Wall Street Journal, Citylab by The Atlantic, Atlas Obscura, Apartment Therapy, and Psychology Today, and I’ve won awards from the the National Endowment for the Humanities, European Commission, Huntington Library, Society for French Historical Studies, and University of Chicago, where I earned my M.A. and Ph.D.

As a ghostwriter and copywriter, I’ve also had the opportunity to work with some incredible clients, including a New York Times bestseller, a prime-time journalist, and award-winning CEOs.