WRITING
SAMPLES

My dissertation, titled “State of Emergency”: Edgehill, Nashville, Tennessee and the Fight Against Displacement from Urban Renewal to Gentrification, tackles the long legacy of residential segregation. Specifically, I looked at how residents of the Edgehill neighborhood utilized historic preservation and material culture methodology to combat further displacement.

The linked paper, completed for course credit in HIST 6150: Exploring the NAACP Papers, details the 1933 integration attempt by Thomas R. Hocutt at UNC- Chapel Hill. This paper paid special attention to the Durham, NC Branch Papers and American Fund for Public Service Papers to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the Hocutt case.

In addition to architectural and landscape surveys, which you can find linked under Professional Projects, I have completed short neighborhood histories for various neighborhoods across Nashville. Linked above is the neighborhood history for Haynes Heights, a twentieth century neighborhood specifically developed for professional-class African Americans in Nashville, Tennessee.