I grew up in rural Kansas before studying Classics at Columbia University in New York City. I later moved from Classics to History and studied for a master's degree at the University of St Andrews. Recently, I completed a DPhil in History at Lincoln College, Oxford.

I teach various papers on early modern Britain and Europe, and my research centres on this period, too. In my DPhil I examined the Tower of London's use as a prison in late Tudor and early Stuart England, and I am interested in early modern state operations and political culture, popular memory, and the history of incarceration and torture. In addition to my work at Pembroke, I am Research Associate on the Oxford John Fell-funded project (Hi)stories of Violence: Myth-Making, Imprisonment and the Cultural Identity of the Tower of London led by Dr Hannah Skoda. In partnership with Historic Royal Palaces and the Royal Armouries, our research considers histories of violence in the Tower, one of this country's most recognisable landmarks, and the way that those histories have been told and retold over time.