Public Scholarship

Research that stays inside the academy is only half finished. Knowledge about how information systems work, how power hides in language, and how institutions govern through moral categories—that knowledge is most urgently needed by the people those systems affect most directly, and least likely to reach them through journal articles and conference papers.

My public scholarship and civic engagement work is built around that gap: making rigorous research accessible, building the infrastructure that allows serious public knowledge exchange to function at scale, and showing up in spaces where the stakes are real and the audience isn’t already convinced.

Public History Runs on Infrastructure, Not Just Good Intentions: Digital Public History

I have been involved with AskHistorians in a long-term, projects-based capacity, contributing to its development as a sustainable platform for public-facing historical scholarship. My work has focused on governance, policy, and institutional infrastructure rather than day-to-day moderation.

In this role, I have contributed to the development of internal governance and DEI policies, helped organize AskHistorians’ academic conferences, and supported public-facing initiatives such as moderated AMAs. This work emphasizes the often-invisible labour that makes large-scale public scholarship possible: building policies, processes, and systems that allow rigorous, accessible historical engagement to function at scale.

I am currently on a planned hiatus from AskHistorians and expect to return to active involvement in late 2026.

TECH for People, Not Profit: Civic Technology & Community Engagement

Civic technology is where my research commitments meet community practice. I engage with civic tech work focused on building ethical, accessible, and community-centered information systems, collaborating with technologists, researchers, designers, and community partners to address civic challenges using open, participatory, and responsible approaches.

This work prioritizes consent-based collaboration, transparency, and long-term sustainability over extractive or solutionist models of “innovation.” It draws on both my research background and professional experience in ethical infrastructure and governance design, particularly in contexts involving public institutions, nonprofits, and equity-centered communities.

Where Ideas Get Stress-Tested: Conferences, Workshops, & Scholarly Exchange

In addition to formal publications, I regularly present research at academic and interdisciplinary conferences in history, digital humanities, and information studies. These venues function as spaces for methodological testing, interdisciplinary exchange, and sustained scholarly conversation across fields.

I also design and lead workshops and seminars for academic and public audiences on topics including digital methods, information ethics, AI governance, accessibility, and responsible knowledge production. These sessions are grounded in research and critical reflection rather than tool-centric or prescriptive approaches.

A full list of conference papers, panels, and organizing roles is available on my CV.

Advice, Not Optics: Consultation & Advisory Work

Alongside my academic and civic work, I am available for select, limited consultation and advisory engagements aligned with my research expertise. This includes work related to information ethics, governance, accessibility, and the responsible design of knowledge systems in academic, nonprofit, and public-sector contexts, as well as historically grounded consultation on early modern Scottish and English history for fiction, film, and television. This latter work draws on my training as a historian of early modern Scotland, particularly in areas related to political culture, gender, religion, and authority.

I approach consultation as an extension of scholarly practice rather than as a primary professional identity. As such, I prioritize engagements that are clearly scoped, ethically grounded, and oriented toward public value—rather than performative, extractive, or purely reputational outcomes. While my primary research focus is now on information ethics and governance, I bring the same standards of evidence, contextual rigor, and interpretive care to all advisory work I accept.

Expertise Is Labour: Compensation

Compensation is an ethical consideration. Speaking, teaching, and advisory work are forms of labour, and I expect them to be compensated accordingly. Rates vary depending on format, scope, and audience, but I prioritize engagements in which time, expertise, and preparation are valued fairly.

That said, not all requests are the same. I am not interested in monetizing informal scholarly generosity: if you are a student, independent creator, or fan writer looking for a small amount of historically grounded advice to make a setting feel accurate, I am happy to help without charge where time allows. By contrast, consultation for for-profit businesses, funded projects, or institutional governance work is professional labour and should be compensated as such.

Given my research focus on bias and inequity, equitable compensation is not ancillary to this work—it is part of it.

How I Decide What to Say Yes To: Guiding Principles

Across my public scholarship and civic engagement work, I am guided by a commitment to:

accessibility and inclusive participation
ethical responsibility in knowledge production
transparency and accountability in information systems
reciprocal, community-centered collaboration

These principles shape how I select projects, define roles, and engage with partners.