A cultural historian of the United States, he is presently completing a book manuscript titled Slavery, Photography, and the Birth of Modern Visual Politics in America (under contract with Oxford University Press). This book explores how photography reshaped the culture and politics of slavery. He received a B.A. from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in history, with a certificate in visual studies, from the University of Southern California. From 2014-2016, he was a Mellon postdoctoral fellow at Washington University in St. Louis.