
Forthcoming Presentations
"Keith Carried a Clutch:" Gay Men and the Power of the Purse, Berkshires Conference on Women, Genders, and Sexualities, Santa Clara University, Jun 2023
“The Power of the Purse,” Keynote speaker, Women’s History Month, Women’s Coalition Employee Resource Group, Assured Partners, Mar 2023
“The Power of the Purse,” Keynote Speaker, Women’s History Month, United Way of South Hampton Roads, Mar 2023
_________________________________________
Past Scholarly Presentations
“'I Have Got My Pocketbook By My Machine:' Working Women, Place, Space, and Women's Pocketbooks at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory," American Historical Association, New Orleans, Jan 2022
“Women’s Work, Clothing, and Contestations of Power in America and Africa,” Panel Organizer, American Historical Association, New Orleans, Jan 2022
"Sacks, Bags, and Purses: Enslaved' Women's Pursuit of Freedom and Privacy in the Mid-Nineteenth Century,” Presenter, Institute of Modern Languages Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London, Dec 2021
“Promising Pedagogies," Panel Chair, American Studies Association annual conference, Baltimore, MD, November 2020 (cancelled due to Covid-19)
"The Power of the Purse: Resistance and Repression in Mid-Twentieth Century America," Panel Organizer, “Gendered Objects: Identity, Agency, and Activism through Material Culture. ”Berkshires Conference on Women, Genders, and Sexualities, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, May 2020 (cancelled due to Covid-19
"Purses and the Politics of Resistance," American Studies Association, Honolulu, Nov 2019
“The Performative Role of the Purse in American Visual Culture, 1890-1920,” The Berkshire Conference on Women, Genders, and Sexualities, Hofstra University, June 2017
"The Things She Carried," National Endowment for the Humanities, Summer Institute, Bard Graduate Center, July 2015
"Women and the Power of the Purse," Works in Progress, Regional Interdisciplinary Conference of Feminist Scholarship, Virginia Wesleyan College, March 2015
"The Promises and Perils of Teaching the History of Fun," American Historical Association, New York City, January 2015
“Performing the Primitive in a Nerve-Wracked World,” Western Association of Women’s Historians Conference, Polytechnic University, Pomona, California, May 2014
"The Prettiest Woman on the Stage is a Man," Popular Culture Association/American Cultural Association, Washington D.C., March 2013
"Sex, Savagery and the Woman Who Made Vaudeville Famous", Women, Professions, and Politics: A Historical Symposium in Memory of Lynn D. Gordon, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, October 2012
“‘She is What She Aint:’ Lillyn Brown and the Meaning of Black Male Impersonation,” The Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, June 2011
“‘She is What She Aint:’ Lillyn Brown and the Meaning of Black Male Impersonation,” Keynote Speaker, Susan B. Anthony Institute Undergraduate Research Conference, April 2011
“‘Making a Woman of Himself:’ Julian Eltinge and the Art of Female Impersonation,” Invited Speaker, Humanities and Social Sciences Lecture Series, Schenectady Community College, March 2011
“‘I Don’t Care:’ The Gender and Racial Transgressions of the Irreverent Eva Tanguay,” The Futures of American Studies Institute, Dartmouth College, June 2009
“Cross Dressers and Race Crossers: Blackness and Gender on the American Popular Stage,” The Susan B. Anthony Institute’s Annual Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference, University of Rochester, March 2007
PUBLIC PRESENTATIONS

Photograph by Erin Dougherty, Eleanor’s Norfolk, Dec 7, 2022.
● Invited Speaker, “Racism in the Suffrage Movement,” Salon Talk Series, Eleanor’s Norfolk: Intersectional Feminist Bookstore, Norfolk, VA, Dec 2022
● Presenter and co-organizer, “A Brief History of Abortion,” Robert Nusbaum Center, AAUW, Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies Program, Virginia Wesleyan University, Sept 2022
● Invited presenter/consultant, “Exploring the Intersection of Gender and Race in Academia,” Equity in Academia Series, Children’s National Hospital, George Washington University, June 2022
● Invited Presenter, Women’s History and Equality Commemoration, Norfolk, VA Naval Base, August 2021
● Invited Presenter, “Race, Gender, and the Fight for Women’s Suffrage, 1890-1920,” Virginia Beach Historical Society, Virginia Beach, VA, March 2018
● Invited Presenter, “Apparel in American History,” Four-part series, Institute for Lifelong Learning, Westminster-Canterbury Retirement Community, Virginia Beach, VA, November 2017