2014, University of Virginia, PhD African History
PhD Dissertation: Disentangling Ethnicity in East Africa, ca. 1-2010 CE: Past Communities in Present Practices

2008, University of Virginia, MA in African History  
Masters Thesis: The Historical Complexities of “Mijikenda”: Dynamics of Differentiation and Affiliation in the Mombasa Hinterland, c. 100CE – 1924

2006, Brigham Young University, BA in History, Minors in African Studies and Music
Magna Cum Laude, with Honors              
Honors Thesis: The Christian Watoro of Fuladoyo: Competing Ideologies on the Swahili Coast

Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) Grant [Kenya, Tanzania]
United States Department of Education
Fall 2009-Fall 2010

Summer Language Scholarship
University of Virginia, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Summer 2009

Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship
Social Science Research Council
May-September 2008

Summer Language Scholarship
University of Virginia, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Summer 2007

The President’s Fellowship
University of Virginia, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
2006-2010

Outstanding History Student
Brigham Young University
Spring 2006

Gordon B. Hinckley Presidential Scholarship
Brigham Young University
2000-2006

FLAS Summer Language Fellowship
Indiana State University, Summer Cooperative African Languages Institute
Summer 2006

Study Abroad Scholarship
Golden Key International Honour Society
Summer 2004

“Framing and Negotiating Jurisdictional Sovereignty: British Consolidation of Legal Pluralism in the Zanzibar Protectorate, 1839-1908,” James A. Barnes Club Conference, Temple University, 21 March 2009

“On the Margins: A Historiography of Modernity in Southern Arabia,” Essays in History, Review Essay, 2009

“Contesting Omani Orthodoxy: Identity Politics and ‘Indigenous’ Islam along the Northern Swahili Coast, 1500-1800”, UNC-Duke Islamic Studies Graduate Conference, 6-7 April 2007

“The Christian Watoro of Fuladoyo: Competing Ideologies on the Swahili Coast,” 2006 Cahuita Symposium on Slavery, Culture, and Religion, Feb 2006

Kiswahili – Advanced (Reading, Writing, Conversation)
Arabic – Lower Intermediate (Reading, Conversation), Beginning (Writing)

Pre-dissertation Research
Nairobi, Mombasa, & Lamu Kenya
July – August 2008
Zanzibar, Tanzania
August 2008

Language Training (Kiswahili)
Zanzibar, Tanzania
June-August 2007

Independent Field Study (Undergraduate Study Abroad)
East London, South Africa
May-August 2004

Graduate Teaching Assistant
University of Virginia, History Department
Courses: Early African History; Modern African History; Shaping the Modern World (1890-1943)
August 2007-May 2008

Research Assistant
Brigham Young University, Joseph Smith Papers Project
Duties: Assist documentary editors in researching, crafting, and refining footnotes, charts, etc.
January 2005-May 2006

Assistant Editor
Brigham Young University, History Department
The Thetean (Student History Journal)
January-May 2006

Undergraduate Teaching Assistant
Brigham Young University, History Department
Courses: United States to 1870, Civil War Era
June-December 2005

Writing Fellow (Tutor)
Brigham Young University, Honors College
Duties: Tutored 15-20 students each semester with writing assignments in honors history courses
September 2004-May 2006

Receptionist
Brigham Young University, Religion Department
Duties: Directed Calls, graded exams, and transcribed historical periodicals foronline publication
January-December 2004

Full-time Missionary
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Washington Everett Mission
Duties: 70 hours/week engaging strangers in conversations about religion
teaching; conducting interviews; and community service
May 2001-May 2003