THE NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF HISTORY

Vicki Buchanio Earls is a library professional, local historian, and genealogist who has served the historic Franklin Public Library in Franklin, MA for almost 40 years.  Both in her role as Reference Librarian, and as a personal passion, she is dedicated to the preservation of the library’s historic records, its Ray Memorial building, and above all the collection of books donated to the town by Benjamin Franklin.  Vicki has shared her knowledge of library history widely, through interviews on PBS as well as network television and radio. She resides in Franklin with her husband, a writer, and one very stubborn ginger cat.

Erik J. Chaput holds a doctorate in early American history from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. His 2013 book, The People's Martyr: Thomas Wilson Dorr and the 1842 Rhode Island Rebellion (University Press of Kansas) will be coming out in paperback later this year. Chaput is the co-editor with Russell DeSimone of several letter collections on the Dorr Rebellion Project (website: http://library.providence.edu/dorr). He teaches American History at Western Reserve Academy in Ohio and online in the School of Continuing Education at Providence College.

Jeannette W. Cockroft is an associate professor of history and political science at Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas. She has a B.A. in East Asian Languages and Culture from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. in political science from the University of Kansas and a Ph.D. in history from Texas A&M University. Her research on Margaret Chase Smith has appeared in Maine History, the Washington Post and Women in the American Political System: An Encyclopedia of Women as Voters, Candidates, and Officeholders. She is also a podcaster on the Women’s History channel of the New Books Network. During the 2016-2017 academic year, she was a Fulbright lecturer at Southwest University in Chongqing, China, where she lectured extensively in both China and Mongolia on American culture and politics as well as the 2016 U.S. Presidential election.

Dr. Rebecca Corso is an Assistant Professor of Education at Stonehill College in Easton, MA. With almost 10 years of classroom teaching experience, she utilizes pedagogical theory and practical knowledge to cultivate supportive, impactful, and student-centered learning environments. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Gettysburg College in Secondary Education and History, a Master of Arts in Teaching and Foundations from Fairfield University, and a Doctor of Education in Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership from Northeastern University. Through her classroom teaching, research, and advocacy work, she seeks to upend harmful and exclusionary traditional narratives of American history in favor of a more inclusive and holistic picture of the past. When not in the classroom, Dr. Corso can be found skiing, cooking, or at home on Cape Cod with her husband, playing with their Bernese Mountain dog, Dennis.

Russell J. DeSimone is an independent scholar. He is co-author of Broadsides of the Dorr Rebellion (1992), author of The Dorr Rebellion Chronicled in Ballads and Poetry (1993), A Survey of Nineteenth Century Rhode Island Billheads (2002), Rhode Island’s Rebellion (2009), co-author of Remarkable Women of Rhode Island(2014) and author of Rhode Island Election Tickets – A Survey of Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Paper Ballots (2023). He is editor of Mister Providence College – The Selected Writings of Rev. Joseph L. Lennon, O.P. (2019) and “Fighting Bob” Quinn – Political Reformer and the People’s Advocate (2020). He has also written numerous articles on Rhode Island history.

DeSimone currently is co-historian-in-residence for the Dorr Rebellion Project (website: http://library.providence.edu/dps/projects/dorr/index.html) sponsored by Providence College.

Jonathan A. Hanna was born in Los Angeles, CA, and reared in Los Angeles, Baltimore County, and Greater Boston. He earned the Ph.D. in American history from the Claremont Graduate University. His principal areas of research include early national American political and intellectual history, the history of the American South, and early modern/modern European political thought and American political thought. His work has been supported by the North Caroliniana Society, the South Caroliniana Library at the University of South Carolina, and the Maryland Historical Society. He defended his dissertation, “Friends of Order: The Southern Federalist Persuasion in the Age of Jeffersonian Democracy,” in August 2020. His forthcoming monograph, derived from his dissertation, is under consideration with a major university press.

Scott Kirshy earned a B.A. in History from Dean College in 2022. He is also the 2022 recipient of the New England History Teachers Association’s Vera Laska Award for excellence among history undergraduates.

Barry Levy is a Professor of Emeritus History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he taught Early American History. Inspired by brilliant teachers at Great Neck North Junior and Senior High Schools, he became a History major at Cornell University, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude. He earned a Ph.D. in History from the University of Pennsylvania. He received nine fellowships, including two at Harvard and one at The Institute for Advanced Study, and is a lifetime fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society. He is the author of ten articles and books: Quakers and the American Family: British Settlement in the Delaware Valley (Oxford University Press, 1991) and Town Born: The Political Economy of New England from its Origin to the Revolution (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014). Focusing on actual human experience, he currently studies the impact of New England settlers’ long history of organized violence on U.S. state formation and society.

Dr. Gregory Michna has been at Arkansas Tech University since 2017 and has established himself as an innovative educator and researcher, recently accepting the role of Director of General Education for the university. Dr. Michna specializes in early American history with an emphasis on Native American history and religious studies. His work has been published in Church History – the leading journal for research in the history of Western Christianity – as well as Sermon Studies and the World History Bulletin. Dr. Michna brings innovative pedagogy to the classroom with the use of interactive roleplaying games and contemporary educational technology to help train future historians and Social Studies educators.

Lyle Nyberg is a lawyer turned historian. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Boston University School of Law. He has documented the history and architecture of more than 50 buildings in greater Boston and in the old seaside town of Scituate, Massachusetts. They are published in the state’s MACRIS online database. Lyle is a long-time member of the Scituate Historical Society, gives talks on historical topics, and runs a website with historical information. He is the author of several books, including Summer Suffragists (2020), On a Cliff (2021), and Seacoast Scituate By Air (2022).