A LITTLE ABOUT ME...

 

When I was a kid, history was my favorite subject. And I loved all of it...well, except for Chicago history. And immigration history. And labor history. But that didn't matter a whole lot because I grew up as a musician - in fact, I could read music before I could read words. So no one was surprised when I went to college and got a degree in music.
 

After college, I worked at some of the nation's top opera companies in artistic administration. I learned some important things in my career in opera: how to balance a one million dollar budget; how to fix a jammed copy machine; how a good boss can make a world of difference; how to say "everything conspires to seduce my heart!" in Italian*; how to keep a straight face when someone cracks a high C; but most importantly I learned that, despite my love for opera, I didn't want to work in an office.

 

I cashed in my savings, moved from New York City to Galway, Ireland, and started a master's degree in Irish Studies. Within weeks I knew I had made the right decision and by the end of that year, I discovered something surprising: turns out I actually have a passion for Chicago, immigration, and labor history.

 

After graduating with first class honours from the National University of Ireland, Galway, I took my new-found passions to the Ph.D. program in History at Boston College. Once I finished my course work and oral exams, I reestablished myself in Chicago in order to research and write my dissertation, "Immigrants, Nativists, and the Making of Nineteenth-Century Chicago." I graduated in 2015.

 

Along the way, I've discovered that my historical studies are important to me not only in their nineteenth-century context, but because my historical research changes the way I see the world today. While digging into the world of nineteenth-century immigrant Chicago, I have mentored junior high and high school girls from around the world, taken part in urban "place-making" and community development events, and explored the ways in which social media can contribute to social justice movements. In other words, my historical studies are not my "day job" - they are part of who I am as a twenty-first century urban citizen. And, by the way, a good Verdi aria can still make me cry.

 

*Tutto conguira a sedurre il mio cor!