Research Interests:
My research has focused primarily on archival management, public history, American religion, and American institutional cultures. Recent books have included: Privacy and Confidentiality Perspectives: Archivists and Archival Records (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2005), co-edited with Menzi Behrnd-Klodt, which discusses the complex privacy challenges facing archivists in a rapidly changing technological climate; and Covenant House: Journey of a Faith-Based Charity (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005), which focuses on a major child-welfare philanthropy that underwent a highly publicized clergy sexual abuse scandal in 1990. I have also authored Spreading the Word: The Bible Business in Nineteenth-Century America (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988), which related the American Bible Society’s development over the course of the nineteenth-century and considered broader changes in the nation's corporate, benevolent, and philanthropic structures; and edited the diary of Michael Augustine Corrigan, the Roman Catholic bishop of Newark from 1872-1880 and a major conservative prelate in the nineteenth-century Church. My current book project involves an edition of the writings of Waldo Gifford Leland, a pioneering early-twentieth century archival theorist and a key figure in the translation of European archival theory to North America. I am most interested in the ways in which different cultures of information have developed over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Teaching Interests:
My teaching interests reflect these research projects. I teach a year-long introductory overview of the archival profession that seeks to blend theory and practice. A full range of topics, including appraisal, arrangement and description, reference, legal and ethical issues, records management, and the intellectual and social history of the profession are incorporated into the core course. In addition, students receive extensive field experiences designed to apply classroom theory in real-world settings. I also have taught history courses that chart the history of Christianity in nineteenth-and twentieth-century America, discuss approaches to local and community history, and explore historical research methods. I strive to maintain a collaborative approach in my classes, and value participatory, seminar-style classes.
