I was born in 1969 in Baltimore, Maryland. My parents allowed me tremendous freedom to roam my hometown once I could ride a bike and catch a bus. This wandering allowed me to find those neighborhoods and institutions that best suited my tastes; I collected neighborhoods the way some kids collected stamps or baseball cards. In dreams I am forever discovering a "new" and "unexplored" Baltimore neighborhood that I can't imagine having missed before. Baltimore was just that kind of town--always some new place to explore.

Like many urban historians I have transformed my love for cities into a professional career. Most of my work attempts to reconcile cultural and intellectual history with existing urban form, politics, and society. My books and articles focus upon recent historical narratives that I believe offer alternative insights into contemporary urban issues.

I have been employed in a variety of different positions including ceramics instructor, writing tutor, director of an after-school program in Santa Fe, full-time professor of American history at the university level, and administrator of programs on urban affairs at Tulane University. I am currently an Associate Professor at the New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury, New York..

Do feel free to contact me if you have any questions about my work or research.