Teaching

An interdisciplinary program that blends classic and contemporary war theory with practical, real-world maritime case studies. Students learn to evaluate complex problems at all levels of conflict—and formulate strategies to address them. Learn more here.

Graduate Certificate in Maritime History

U.S. Naval War College

War at Sea in the Age of Sail

U.s. Naval War College and Yale University

This seminar studies European warfare at sea from 1500 to 1815. Themes include the relationship between navies and societies; the experience of life at sea; the role of navies in the development of science, industry, and the state; the nature and limitations of sea power; theories of sea power; and the emergence of British naval supremacy. We also examine different approaches to naval and military history. You can download the syllabus here.

The Senior Essay

Yale University

The senior essay is a required one- or two-term independent research project conducted under the guidance of a faculty adviser. As a significant work of primary-source research, it serves as the capstone project of the History major. I have advised students on a diverse range of topics including the aftermath of the Spanish Armada, the South Sea Bubble, and the U.S. National Guard in WWI.

The Military and Society in Britain and France, c. 1650–1815

university of oxford

This undergraduate seminar offers students the opportunity to explore, within a comparative context, the relationship between the armed forces and society from the end of the Thirty Years War to the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars. A key aim of the course is to suggest ways in which military history can be embedded within the wider framework of political, social, and cultural history, as well as within the context of the history of medicine and gender studies. It focuses primarily on Britain and France although it considers other European states, such as Prussia, where appropriate.

This course examines Britons’ relationship with the sea from the time of the Spanish Armada to the close of the twentieth century. It therefore explores themes as diverse as the sea’s perceived role in fostering ‘British Liberty’, to naval warfare’s role in the development of banking and national finance; from shipbuilding to Britain’s fisheries; from the creation of masculinity to the ‘dark side’ of slavery, from tourism and travel to the role of women at sea; from exploration and mapmaking to the worldwide maritime economy. The course also attempts to tie those diplomatic, economic, financial and military developments together with the British imagination: how British men and women saw themselves, their country and their world against the backdrop of the green, white and blue world that surrounded and surrounds them.