He received his B.A. from Wheaton College (IL); an M.Div. from Gordon-Conwell Seminary; a Th.M. from Harvard Divinity School; and a Ph.D. in U.S. History from the University of Notre Dame. At Notre Dame he received an Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award (2009), as well as a Graduate Teaching Fellowship in the University Writing Program (2013-14). His teaching interests span environmental history, the history of slavery, human-animal interactions, and writing composition.