Becoming a historian has represented a second career for me in the field of education.
During my “first career,” I taught social studies courses at the middle school and
high school levels and in a skills development program at a college. This experience
taught me to integrate study skills instruction into content area courses in order
to help students learn the social studies content I was teaching. At SUNY Plattsburgh,
I work hard to help students acquire the academic and historical skills to become
active and (I hope) lifelong learners.
As a teacher-scholar, I bring into the classroom what I have learned as the result
of my research endeavors, sharing my findings in lectures, class discussions and in
new courses I have developed. My research to date has focused on French-Canadian migrations
to the northeastern United States and, particularly, on the process by which French
speakers have become integrated into U.S. society over historical time. In my first
book,Loyal but French: The Negotiation of Identity by French-Canadian Descendants in the
United States(2008), I explore how francophones often challenged, rejected or redefined some of
the norms of the host society. In my second monograph,Not a Catholic Nation: The Ku Klux Klan Confronts New England in the 1920s(2015), I explore how nativism, religious prejudice and class differences led to the
Ku Klux Klan’s remarkable growth in New England during the twenties, a development
virtually ignored by previous scholars.
My most recent book, Catholics Across Borders: Canadian Immigrants in the North Country, Plattsburgh, New
York, 1850-1950 (SUNY Press, 2024), is a community study that examines the evolution of
a French-speaking population in the northern borderlands of New York over a century
of historical time, offering some fascinating contrasts with the more studied francophone
textile mill centers of New England.
“Franco-Americans Fight World War One - Abroad and at Home,” Je Me Souviens Magazine, 43:2 (April – June 2020), pp. 39–44.
Editor’s Choice Special Selection, an excerpt from Not a Catholic Nation: “The Ku
Klux Klan in 1920s Massachusetts,” Historical Journal of Massachusetts 47:1 (Winter 2019), pp. 2–31.
“A Peculiar Condition: A History of the Jumping Frenchmen Syndrome in Scientific and
Popular Accounts,” Journal of the History of the Neurosciences 27:4 (2018), pp. 355–374.
“‘Riel…vivra dans notre histoire’: The Response of French Canadians in the United
States to Louis Riel’s Execution,” Journal of Canadian Studies / Revue d’études canadiennes 51:3 (Fall 2017), pp. 697–724.
“‘Sunk into Poverty and Despair’: Franco-American Clergy Letters to FDR during the
Great Depression,”Québec Studies 61(Spring/Summer 2016), pp. 39–52.
Not a Catholic Nation: The Ku Klux Klan Confronts New England in the 1920s(Amherst and Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2015.)
The Creation of the American System of Government: A Handbook Emphasizing Literacy
and Study Strategies, with Dorothy A. Osterholt (Amazon Kindle, 2015; Create Space, 2015.)
“‘The Humble Parish Bank’: The Cultural Origins of the U.S. Credit Union Movement,”The New England Quarterly, 88:3(September 2015), pp. 449–482.
“Not Foreigners but Americans: A Case Study of French-Canadian Descendants in Lewiston,
Maine,”Je Me Souviens, a publication of the American-French Genealogical Society, 36:1(Autumn 2013), pp. 36–54.
“French-Canadian Americans,” in Carlos E. Cortés, ed.,Multicultural America: A Multimedia Encyclopedia, vol. 2(SAGE Reference, 2013), pp. 923–925.
“‘Why Don’t You Be a Klansman?’ Anglo-Canadian Support for the Ku Klux Klan Movement
in 1920s New England,”American Review of Canadian Studies 40(December 2010), pp. 508–516.
“‘This is Not a Catholic Nation’: The Ku Klux Klan Confronts Franco-Americans in Maine,”New England Quarterly, 82:2(June 2009), pp. 285–303.
Loyal but French: The Negotiation of Identity by French-Canadian Descendants in the
United States(East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2008.)
