My research agenda spans two projects.
I am completing my PhD dissertation, “This tale happened once upon a time: The Californian narrative of the Civil War and its influence on America, 1865–2009,” explores California’s unique Civil War narrative, characterized by its perceived detachment from the war and the events leading up to it.
In parallel, I have began my next project investigating how evolving media environments shape electoral outcomes, focusing on the pivotal 1896 U.S. presidential election. It utilizes digital methods such as Natural Language Processing, topic modeling, and geospatial analysis to reconstruct what Americans knew and read before the election. By analyzing regional variations in newspaper coverage and linking them to voter behavior, the study offers a high-resolution view of media influence during a transformative era. It also draws parallels to today’s media-driven polarization, providing historical insights into democracy, political communication, and the role of information in shaping public opinion and electoral change.