Hello and welcome to my research and teaching website. My aim with this page is to bring together all the varied elements of my research and teaching for the benefit of students, colleagues, and future collaborators in both categories! Explore the pages to discover more about my work and future projects, to navigate the courses I am teaching this semester, and to understand my grading standards and assignment requirements.
I am a historian of modern Ireland, first and foremost. I’m able to pursue this work as Associate Professor of Transnational European History at Idaho State University. I grew up outside Detroit, MI, in an old farm house on a forty-acre plot. I was educated at Central Michigan University (B.Sc., 2003), University College Dublin (M.A., 2005), and Trinity College Dublin (Ph.D., 2011). Research, writing, and teaching are my passions. I pursued a career in academia because at the time (undergraduate days), I conceived it to be the most challenging and rewarding profession within my skill-set, and something that would provide opportunities for periodic reinvention. So far this has proven true.
Research
My research is varied, and has developed in several directions over the past few years. You can read some of my work here, and can view my academia.edu profile here. For a more specific look at my work in Irish environmental history, see my profile on the Irish Environmental History Network page.

Connemara National Park on a cloudy day. 2015.
Work/Life Balance
I enjoy lots of hobbies, including minor home improvement projects, gardening and landscaping, and just tinkering in the garage. I don’t watch much television, and I’m always disappointed that there is not enough time to read. I enjoy watercolor painting and have painted a number of Irish landscapes. I love hockey and football and occasionally get to the gym. Most of all, I love to travel, eat local foods and drink good coffee, and to walk the history I study and teach. I am father to two wonderful little humans, Liam (11) and Cate (8).