I’ve discussed my research at Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Temple, and the Newberry Library. This page lists my upcoming and past speaking engagements. (You can also follow me on Twitter for periodic updates about future events.) If you’re interested in having me speak at your campus, museum, or other institution, please get in touch. I’m also available to comment on other scholarly work at workshops and symposia, and I’m always interested in collaborating with other scholars on panel proposals for future conferences.

Upcoming.

I’ll present an invited paper, “Stories in a Muddy Ledger: Narrating a Non-Narrative Source with Digital Humanities Tools,” at “Digital Hermeneutics: From Research to Dissemination,” a conference hosted by the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C., on Friday, October 11, 2019.

I’ll present a paper, “Routes to the Pacific: Maps, Terraqueous Mobility, and American Westward Expansion, 1776–1849,” at “The Power of Maps and the Politics of Borders,” a conference hosted by the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, Pa., on Saturday, October 12, 2019.

I’ll present a paper, “The Pacific Railroads and the Pacific World: American Expansion, Asian Trade, and Terraqueous Mobility,” at the Western History Association 2019 annual conference, in Las Vegas, Nev., on Friday, October 18, 2019, as part of a conference panel, “Western Waterfronts: The Pacific Coast and the North American West,” that I co-organized with Madison Heslop.

I’ll present an invited talk, “The Forgotten History of the Transcontinental Railroads,” at the Museum of Chinese in America in New York City, N.Y., on Thursday, October 24, from 6:30pm to 7:30pm. Purchase tickets here.

I’ll present a paper, “They Came on Waves of Ink: Digitally Mapping Pacific Northwest Maritime Trade Networks During American Settlement, 1851–1861,” at the American Philosophical Society’s Brown Bag lunch series in Philadelphia, Pa., on Tuesday, November 12, from 12 noon to 1:00pm.

I’ll present a paper, “The Pacific Railroads and the Pacific World: American Expansion, Asian Trade, and Terraqueous Mobility,” at the American Historical Association 2020 annual conference, in New York City, N.Y., in early January 2020 (exact date TBA), as part of a conference panel, “Imperial Ties: The U.S. Transcontinental Railroads in Global and Indigenous Contexts,” that I organized.

I’ll present an invited paper, “The Pacific Railroads and the Pacific Ocean: American Expansion, Asian Trade, and Terraqueous Mobility, 1869–1914,” at the Boston Seminar on Modern American Society and Culture, hosted by the Massachusetts Historical Society, in Boston, Mass., on March 31, 2020.

Past.

• “Mapping Pacific Northwest Maritime Trade Networks During American Settlement, 1851–61,” North American Society for Oceanic History 2019 annual conference [schedule], New Bedford, Mass., May 16, 2019.
• “The Pacific Railroads and the Pacific World: American Expansion, Asian Trade, and Terraqueous Mobility,” Princeton American Studies Graduate Salon, May 13, 2019.
• “Using Digital Mapping to Illuminate Non-Narrative Sources,” Data Conversations in History, organized by the Center for Digital Humanities and hosted by the Department of History, Princeton University, April 11, 2019.
• “The Pacific Railroads and the Pacific Ocean: A Reassessment,“ an invited talk at the Yale Westerners’ Lunch, hosted by the Department of History and the Howard R. Lamar Center for the Study of Frontiers and Borderlands, Yale University, March 27, 2019.
• My final public oral exam—my dissertation defense—was held on Monday, January 28, 2019. (I passed!)
• “Water Lines: Marine Borders, Maritime Trade, and Steamboat Sovereignty in the Terraqueous Pacific Northwest, 1846–1872,” Long Nineteenth Century Workshop, Princeton University, December 12, 2018.
• “Water Lines: Maritime Mobility and Marine Borders in the Pacific Northwest,” Western History Association 2018 annual conference, San Antonio, Tex., October 19, 2018. [Conference schedule: PDF, Issuu]
• “Borders and the Wet West: Indigenous Treaties, Marine Boundaries, and Annexation Schemes in the Mid-Nineteenth-Century Pacific Northwest,” Colonialism and Imperialism Workshop, Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (P.I.I.R.S.), Princeton University, April 5, 2018.
• “Harbors and the Wet West: The Northwest Passage, Commercial Expansionism, and Maritime Trade in the Nineteenth-Century Pacific Northwest,” Modern America Workshop (M.A.W.), Department of History, Princeton University, November 9, 2017.
• “A Watery Critique of Settler Colonialism,” Colonialism and Imperialism Workshop, Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (P.I.I.R.S.), Princeton University, May 3, 2017.
• “Waterlocked: Connection, Distance, and Isolation in the New Northwest,” Modern America Workshop (M.A.W.), Department of History, Princeton University, March 6, 2017.
• “Enclosing the Water: Houseboats, Law, and Property in Puget Sound,” at “Life and Law in Rural America,” American Studies Graduate Student Conference, Princeton University, March 26, 2016.
• “Saltwater Settlement: Water, Sovereignty, and Settler Colonialism,” Newberry Consortium in American Indian Studies (N.C.A.I.S.) Graduate Student Conference, Newberry Library, Chicago, Ill., August 7, 2015.
• “Changes on the Waters: Indigenous and Settler Place-Making on the Salish Sea,” Works-in-Progress Session, Princeton–Mellon Initiative in Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities, School of Architecture, Princeton University, July 9, 2015.
• “‘The Only Chinese Aviator in the World’: Tom Gunn, Race, and Aviation in the U.S. and China, 1912–1925,” James A. Barnes Club Graduate Student Conference, Department of History, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pa., March 28, 2015.
• “‘Whether They Are To Be Exterminated’: Native Americans, Military Science, and Ambivalence on the Pacific Railroad Surveys, 1853–1855,” Colonialism and Imperialism Workshop, P.I.I.R.S., Princeton University, March 11, 2015.
• “‘Chinese Birdmen’: Aviation and Race in the Transnational American West, 1895–1919,” at “Race, Ethnicity, and Migration: An Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference,” Center for the Study of Ethnicity & Race and Departments of History and Sociology, Columbia University, New York City, N.Y., February 26, 2015.