I joined American Studies from Sheffield University in September 2006. I received my first degree in American Studies from Hull University, spending a year at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. After that, I took an MA at the Institute of United States Studies, studying with the great British historian of American slavery and the Civil War, Peter J. Parish, before completing doctoral work at Hull. I was secretary of BrANCH (British American Nineteenth Century Historians), 2002-2004, was on the executive committee for a decade, and organised two overseas conferences in Edgefield, South Carolina and Houston, Texas. I was book reviews editor for the Routledge journal American Nineteenth Century History from 2005-2016. I served on the British Association for American Studies executive committee, 2016-17. I have also served on the Southern Historical Association's Membership Committee, Program Committee, and was Chair of the Green-Ramsdell Award Committee.-Scopus