Z. Zane McNeill, Editor, is a dirt queer from Appalachia fighting for y’all to really mean all. They are a genderqueer activist-scholar, socially-engaged artist, and 10-year vegan passionate about consistent anti-oppression work that uplifts the most marginalized within our communities. He is currently working on a community-building project raising queer voices in Appalachia, establishing a collective guide on how to do activist scholarship/be an activist scholar, and are on the editorial support board of a forthcoming collection challenging white supremacy in the LGBT movement.
Lauren Angel, former Associate Editor, is a PhD candidate in twentieth-century American history at George Washington University. Her research interests include representations of race, gender, and regional or national identity as seen through dance performance, politics, and culture. Lauren’s dissertation, “Hot Bodies, Cold War: Dancing America in Person and Performance,” investigates depictions of American multiculturalism within the State Department’s Cold War dance diplomacy program. Lauren’s current research has been funded by a Cosmos Scholars Grant, a New York Public Library Research Fellowship, and two GWU History Excellence Research Fellowships. Lauren also holds an MA in history and a Women’s Studies Graduate Certificate from Marshall University. She is a former professional ballet dancer, a native Appalachian, and an occasional baker. Lauren can be contacted here.
Cory James Young, former Associate Editor, is a History PhD candidate and graduate-student worker at Georgetown University. He received his MA at Georgetown and BA at the State University of New York at Geneseo. Before moving to DC, Cory taught eighth grade Social Studies and English in Pittsford, NY, the Rochester suburb where he grew up. His dissertation, “For Life or Otherwise: Abolition and Slavery in South Central Pennsylvania,” examines how enslavers and their allies propagated a novel system of human bondage during the age of gradual abolition, focusing on the lives and responses of the men and women they enslaved. In addition to his work in the archive and in the classroom, Cory enjoys food, fitness, and attempting to justifying the amount he spends on concert tickets. He can be contacted here and followed on Twitter at @coryjamesyoung.
Nathan Wuertenberg, Co-Founder and former Associate Editor, is currently a doctoral candidate at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He is conducting research for a doctoral dissertation on the 1775 American invasion of Quebec, entitled “Divided We Stand: The American War for Independence, the 1775 Quebec Campaign, and the Rise of Nations in the Twilight of Colonial Empires.” He received his MA in history from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana and his BA in history and Spanish from McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland. He recently contributed a chapter to the two-volume series Violence in American Popular Culture entitled “From Knights to Knights-Errant: The Evolution of Westerns through Portrayals of Violence.” He can be contacted here and followed on Twitter at @nwuertenberg.
Eric Morgenson, former Contributing Editor, is a PhD candidate in history at the State University of New York at Albany. His research interests include the intersections of race and class in the United States, the relationship between liberalism and the left in the twentieth century, and American Jewish history. Eric’s dissertation, The Last Step to Whiteness: American Jews and the end of the Civil Rights Coalition argues that allegations of antisemitism made against Black Power groups in the 1960s were part of a larger effort to distance liberal American Jews from the cause of civil rights. The work explores Jewish assimilation in the twentieth century. It emphasizes the impact that Jews becoming “white” i.e. culturally accepted had on the relationship between American Jews and African Americans. He received an MA from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, a BA from Concordia University-Nebraska, and an Associate of Arts from Southeast Community College in Lincoln, NE. Eric was born and raised in Bismarck North Dakota, but really hates cold weather. He currently lives in Connecticut where it is still too cold. He can be reached here.
Brittany Lewis, former Social Media Editor, completed her undergraduate studies at Temple University with degrees in Broadcast, Telecommunications, and Mass Media and African-American Studies. Post-undergraduate school, she was accepted into the highly competitive Teach for America program. During her years of service, the state of Delaware awarded her the Teacher Cooperative/Retention Award for outstanding dedication and success in the classroom. During her time in Delaware, Brittany also obtained a Master of Secondary Education degree and graduated summa cum laude. Brittany was crowned Miss Delaware for the Miss America Organization in 2014. She is the recipient of the Carol Maclary Excellence in Education Award; Miss America Community Service Award and 1st runner up to the Miss America Jean Bartel Quality of Life Award. Brittany is currently a Ph.D. student in the History Department at George Washington University. Her research interests include 20th-century African-American history, cross-cultural solidarity movements, and city-suburb formation. She is the recipient of the Herber Prize for Best Teaching. She is the chairperson of the George Washington University branch of the DC History Graduate Student Association. She is also an adjunct professor of Ethnic Studies at Wilmington University. She can be contacted here.
Tom Foley, former Activism Editor, is a doctoral candidate at Georgetown University where he is writing a dissertation on on the rise of the hydrocarbon economy and its effect on ecology and politics in mid-nineteenth century Pennsylvania. His research interests include public digital history, slavery, the Civil War, and energy transitions. He has contributed to the Georgetown Slavery Archive (SlaveryArchive.Georgetown.edu) and has also written for the Journal of the Civil War Era and Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal. He has earned degrees from the University of Notre Dame and Villanova University. Before pursuing graduate studies, Tom worked as an amusement park costume character, legislative researcher, park ranger, and mover. He can be contacted here.
The Activist History Review 