Research in Progress

Below is an overview of my ongoing research projects. Manuscripts are in preparation and soon to come!

“Bad Men Make Good Roads”: Public Finance, Infrastructure Expansion and Convict Labor in the Progressive South

In this early-stage project, I investigate the politics of infrastructure expansion in the American South during the Progressive era. The “Good Roads Movement” of the late 19th and early 20th century constituted the rural arm of the Progressive era, advocating for road betterment and highway construction throughout the United States. As public pressure for road construction increased, states experimented with various models to fund infrastructure expansion. In the American South, infrastructure expenditures were kept down by strategically employing county and state convict labor in road construction. Using novel data on incarceration in the postbellum South (PIAS database), I attempt to estimate the “invisible” contribution of convict labor to state public finance, in particular road financing, during this time.

Black Education and Voter Registrations in the Early Civil-Rights Era: Evidence from the Rosenwald Schools

—With Corrine McConnaughy & Ismail White

In this early-stage project, we seek to understand the role of education on black political participation in the American South prior to the Civil Rights era. To that end, we have started to collect historical voter registration data for a number of Southern states as well as geographic data on Rosenwald schools. The latter were constructed in the early 20th century with funding from industrialist and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald in an effort to provide education to black communities all over the South.

Remembrance Culture in the United States: A Field Experiment in Charleston, South Carolina

—with Syon Bhanot & Elsa Voytas

Overview: In this project, we have been developing a field experiment to explore the political dynamics of remembrance culture in America. In particular, we are interested in understanding how com- peting historical narratives of the Civil War and its causes shape individuals’ political views. To that end, we plan to conduct a field experiment in Charleston, South Carolina wherein tourists get the chance to win free admission to a number of pre-selected museums—some of them documenting the history of slavery and others highlighting Charleston’s Confederate heritage. We received seed funding for this project from Swarthmore College and are planning to field the study in the summer of 2022.