Meghan is a third-year Ph.D student specializing in twentieth century United States history witha specific focus on neoliberalism, family production, and the state. Her current research primarily deals with questions surrounding U.S. - based commercial surrogacy and transnational commercial surrogacy, as well as race, pregnancy and maternity, and state violence more broadly. Meghan has worked alongside a number of BC faculty members and is currently a co-organizer of the department’s scholarly working group Bodies and Places, which is overseen by Dr. Conevery Valencius. Meghan’s primary advisor is Dr. Martin Summers.

In addition to her work in the History Department, Meghan was also a Doctoral Fellow in the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy from August 2020-May 2022 along with other Ph.D students from a variety of disciplines. At the conclusion of her fellowship program she accepted the position of graduate assistant and now works alongside Clough Director Dr. Jonathan Laurence and Postdoctoral Fellow Isaiah Sterrett. In addition to her teaching assistantship positions, over the summer of 2023 Meghan interned with the City of Boston and taught her own undergraduate history course titled “Modern History II,” which covered World History from the late eighteenth century until the contemporary period.

Meghan earned her Bachelor’s in English from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2018 and her Master’s in History from Boston College in 2022. She is originally from Oak Park, IL, and when she is not reading or writing Meghan enjoys spending time with her partner, watching K-Dramas, and baking as much as possible.

To learn more about Meghan’s academic and professional experiences please visit her LinkedIn page. ORCID ID: 0000-0002-9122-3028

Publications

Review of The Fires of New England: A Story of Protest and Rebellion in Antebellum New England, Eric Moser, 2017. Forthcoming with the Historical Journal of Massachusetts.

“Stateless: Considering the Ethics and Legality of Transnational Commercial Surrogacy,” The Clough Center Journal (Spring 2024): 55-58. Link.

“How Journalism Fosters Democratic Participation: A Case Study of the Henry Horner Mother’s Guild,” The Clough Center Journal (Spring 2023): 34-37. Link.

“The Fraught Relationship Between Reproductive Justice and State Power,” Annotations and Abstracts: The Boston College Historical Commons, Feb. 10, 2023. Link.

“‘19 Kids Found in Filth’: How the Chicago Keystone Kids’ Case Became Emblematic of Deviant Motherhood and the Crack Cocaine Crisis, 1985-2004,” The Historian 84, no. 1 (Winter 2022): 27-48. Link.