She is the author of For the Freedom of Her Race: Black Women and Electoral Politics in Illinois, 1877–1932 (2009). She is a coeditor, with Ellen Hartigan-O'Connor, of the forthcoming "Oxford Handbook in American Women's and Gender History." Her work has been supported by Harvard University’s Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History and Princeton University’s Center for the Study of Religion. Her current research explores women's involvement in the movement for Puerto Rico's independence from the United States.