About Me

I am an Associate Professor of History at Centre College, a small liberal arts college (SLAC) in the Bluegrass region of central Kentucky. My research focuses on the history of East Asia in the twentieth century, particularly in the evolution of cultural communities in colonial, post-colonial and post-imperial societies in China and Taiwan in the interwar period. I am the author of Empire of Infields: Baseball in Taiwan and Cultural Identity, 1895-1968, and Dreams of a Young Republic: The American Vincentians in China.

My interest in cultural history also extends to video games, particularly in the rise of “esports” and the influence of historical events and dynamics on the storytelling, settings and themes of popular video games. I am associate editor of History Respawned, a video series created by Dr. Robert Whitaker that invites historians to discuss video games in historical context and as texts in their own right. I am the proud founder of the Centre Esports program, and I worked with students to successfully make the case for the college to invest in its first ever co-ed varsity sport.

I received my BA in History and English from University College Cork, an MA in Chinese Studies from the University of Sheffield and a PhD in History from the University of Texas at Austin.

In 2025 I rediscovered my love of photography. I blog about it here on my website, and prints are available at my Etsy shop.

Finally, I write a newsletter about video games, sometimes discussing how it intersects with my teaching and writing. You can sign up here.

If you’d like to get in touch, you can say hello on any of my socials, linked below, or look me up on my faculty page at Centre.