The following products span my work at the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and as an independent scholar. Unless otherwise noted, the opinions and ideas expressed in the publications and presentations are my own and do not necessarily represent those of NEH or the federal government.
Grant Portfolio
During my tenure at NEH (2009-2025), I directed $122M in federal funds across 350+ awards and 15 programs supporting academic institutions, heritage organizations, and community nonprofits nationwide.
• $18.9M – Research & Development: Advanced standards, open-source tools, and best practices in machine learning, heritage science, environmental sustainability, and media preservation. Led comprehensive equity-focused redesign that tripled applications, doubled annual budget ($750K → $1.5M), and resulted in 75% of awards since 2019 supporting Indigenous, underrepresented, and disability communities.
• $46M – General Operating Support: Directed funding distribution to 55 state and jurisdictional nonprofit humanities councils advancing literacy, community, and educational initiatives.
• $14.6M – Crisis Response & Institutional Resilience: Directed emergency allocation of federal resources during national crises, developing rapid assessment protocols and maintaining operations of strategically important cultural and educational institutions under accelerated timelines. American Rescue Plan funding retained/created 360+ jobs across 74 institutions.
• $5.6M – Professional Development: Coordinated education and training program supporting undergraduates, postgraduates, and mid-career professionals. Led $2.4M program redesign that increased budget by 58%, broadened eligibility and geographic reach, and diversified pedagogical models to meet workforce needs.
• $28.1M – Collections Preservation & Digital Resource Development: Administered projects preserving nationally significant library, museum, and archival materials, including $10M for historic newspaper digitization in partnership with the Library of Congress, expanding access for researchers, educators, students, and the public.
• $8.2M – Sustainable Infrastructure: Supported environmentally sustainable design, restoration, and renovation of nationally significant historical, architectural, and cultural sites, strengthening long-term preservation and public access.
• $1.3M – Community Heritage & Resilience: Administered awards to 125+ small and mid-sized organizations – including tribal entities, minority-serving institutions, public libraries, and state/local governments – supporting administrative assessments, community documentation, and public programming to safeguard cultural heritage and foster resilience.
Publications
(2024) “Historical Evidence, Artificial Intelligence, and the Black Box Effect.” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. Vol. 112, No. 3. Evidence: The Use and Misuse of Data, pages 175-200
https://www.jstor.org/stable/48757509
(2023) “AI-as-Historian.” The American Historical Review. Volume 128, Issue 3, September, pages 1372–1377 https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhad368
(2023) R. Darrell Meadows, Joshua Sternfeld, “Artificial Intelligence and the Practice of History: A Forum.” The American Historical Review. Volume 128, Issue 3, September, pages 1345–1349 https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhad362
(2016) “Harlem Crime, Soapbox Speeches, and Beauty Parlors: Digital Historical Context and the Challenge of Preserving Source Integrity.” The American Historical Review. Volume 121, Issue 1, February, pages 143-155
(2014) “Historical Understanding in the Quantum Age.” Journal of Digital Humanities. Vol. 3, no. 2, Summer. http://journalofdigitalhumanities.org/3-2/historical-understanding-in-the-quantum-age/
(2013) “Pedagogical Principles of Digital Historiography.” In Digital Humanities Pedagogy: Practices, Principles, and Politics. ed. Brett D. Hirsch. Cambridge, United Kingdom, Open Book Publishers, pages 255-290 http://www.openbookpublishers.com/reader/161.
(2011) “Archival Theory and Digital Historiography: Selection, Search, and Metadata as Archival Processes for Assessing Historical Contextualization.” The American Archivist. 74. Fall/Winter, pages 544-575
Speaking Engagements
(2024) “Deus Ex Machina: Can AI Save the Human/ities?” INSPIRE 2024 Convening: Reimaging the Future of Teaching and Learning. Hosted by California Learning Lab. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Lsznm4od44
(2023) Interviewed for “AI and History” segment of History in Focus podcast. The American Historical Review. Season 2, Episode 2
https://www.historians.org/podcast/ai-and-history-arms-and-american-revolutions/.
(2016) “Building a Sustainable Digital Scholarly Edition.” Invited participant at Mellon-funded Scholarly Communication Institute, Chapel Hill, NC
(2014) “The NEH and Audiovisual Preservation and Access.” Keynote presented at Association of Moving Image Archivists, Savannah, Georgia
(2014) “Digital Historical Appraisal.” Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference, Baltimore, Maryland
(2014) Instructor, “Chronicling America: Using Historic Digital Newspapers for Teaching and Research.” Workshop conducted at American Historical Association Conference, Washington, D.C.
(2013) “Green Bytes: Sustainable Approaches to Digital Stewardship.” Digital Preservation Conference, Washington, D.C.
(2013) Instructor, “National History Day Teacher Workshop: Teaching How to Incorporate Chronicling America in the K-12 Classroom.” National History Day Conference, College Park, MD
(2013) Organizer and Moderator for plenary session on climate change and digital infrastructure sustainability at the Digital Preservation Conference, Washington, D.C.: “Green Bytes: Sustainable Approaches to Digital Stewardship.”(YouTube)
(2013) “The German Jazz Experience, 1925-1939.” Presented at the Humanities Council of Washington, D.C. Voices of Change, Sounds of Freedom Symposium
(2012) “Making the Leap from Raw Data to Digital Representation: Pedagogical Principles of Digital Historiography.” American Historical Association Conference, Chicago, IL
(2011) “Digital Historical Peer Review: Guidelines for Applying Digital Historiography to the Evaluative Process.” Digital Humanities Conference, Stanford University.
(2010) “Thinking Archivally: Search and Metadata as Building Blocks for a New Digital Historiography.” Digital Humanities Conference, King’s College London
Syllabi
(2016) “History and New Media.” American University, HIST 477/677, Spring PDF
(2010) “Design of History Website.” UCLA, IS 289-3/HIS 201H, Spring PDF
(2009) “History of Modern Sound Technology.” UCLA, IS 289-2, Winter PDF
(2008) “History, Media, and Technology.” UCLA, IS 289-1, Fall PDF