I’m an independent researcher and recent graduate with a PhD in History from University College London. My first book, Selling Out Santa: Hollywood Christmas Films in the Age of McCarthy (2025), explores how Hollywood manipulated the American Christmas holiday for socially conservative ends in the post-war, early Cold War period in response to federal pressures on the motion picture industry. My other work concerns McCarthyism, Hollywood business practices and politics, and media literacy of pop culture. I’m currently located just outside one of my favorite American cities (Boston) with my favorite American Studier (Ben) and my favorite American cat (Biscuits). (But we’re willing to relocate if you’re hiring!)
Publications
Books:
Selling Out Santa: Hollywood Christmas Films in the Age of McCarthy, De Gruyter Brill (2025)
Public Scholarship:
Please see our More Public Scholarship page for recent works and my CV below for more.
Journal Articles:
- “Selling Santa: How Miracle on 34th Street Stole (and Rebranded) Christmas,“ Comparative American Studies An International Journal, 2023
Book Chapters:
- (Co-Authored) Vaughn Joy and Kassie Jo Baron. “Merry Mill Girls: Christmas and Industrialization in 19th Century New England” in Dreaming of Christmas: Rediscovering the Nineteenth-Century Anglo-American Christmas Story, edited by Monika Elbert and Thomas Ruys Smith [Forthcoming, 2025].
- “Love, Marriage, and a Snow-Covered Carriage: Foundations of the Romantic Christmas Genre in Post-HUAC Hollywood, 1949-1954” in Under the Mistletoe: Holiday Romance Films, edited by Liz W. Faber (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2024).
- (Co-Authored) Vaughn Joy and A. Stuart-Thompson. “O Ornitólogo, João Pedro Rodrigues (2016)” in Um Olhar Português: Cinema e Natureza no Século XXI, edited by Filipa Rosário and José Duarte (Lisbon: Editora Documenta/Sistema Solar, 2024).