She teaches classes on early American history and the Civil War and Reconstruction as well as methodological classes on historical writing and digital history. She has also taught at the University of Virginia, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Wake Forest University, and Duke University. Her book, Claiming the Union, published by Cambridge University Press in 2014, examines citizenship in the post-Civil War South. She is currently working on two book manuscripts: one on the Dakota War and one on civilians in central Virginia during the Civil War. She is active in graduate education, previously serving as the Director of Graduate Programs and currently as a mentor for MA and PhD students and as a member of the Administrative Board of the Graduate School. She received her PhD in history from the University of Virginia.