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