He received his PhD from New York University in 2008, where he was a MacCracken Fellow in the Program in American Studies. In 2004, he was awarded the Penfield Fellowship for Studies in Diplomacy, International Affairs, and Belle-Lettres. His research explores the implication of race, nation, and empire in the political economy of the nineteenth century United States, with particular emphasis on the relationship between the production of historical narratives and the mediation of socioeconomic crisis. At present, Professor Waterman is at work on a manuscript entitled _The Corpse in the Kitchen: History, Value, and the Afterlives of the Black Hawk War_. He has taught, most recently, in the American Studies