Scholarship

Research

My research focuses on American capitalism, regulation, race, and economic opportunity.

Dissertation

License to Cut: Race, Regulation, and the Southern Beauty Industry, 1890–1980

This project traces the regulation of barbers and beauticians in the American South. It explores how licensing laws developed, how occupational boundaries were contested, and how regulation affected Black entrepreneurs and women entering the beauty trades.

Dissertation advisor: Kari Frederickson · University of Alabama

Peer-reviewed articles

2026

“Regulating Beauty: The Licensing of Barbers and Beauticians in Alabama and the Nation.” Enterprise & Society 27, no. 1 (2026): 1–26.

2023

With Wendy Lucas and Marcus Witcher. “License to Exclude: Minority Barbers in Arkansas.” Essays in Economic and Business History 41, no. 2 (2023): 132–148.

2021

With Marcus M. Witcher. “Barber Licensing in Arkansas: Public Health or Private Gain?” Cato Journal 41 (2021): 115–138.

Image accompanying the Enterprise & Society publication.

Book reviews

2025

Review of Bartow Elmore, Country Capitalism. Southern Historian 46: 29–31.

2023–24

Review of Amity Shlaes, New Deal Rebels. The Independent Review 28, no. 3.

2023

Review of Julie Willett, The Male Chauvinist Pig: A History. Southern Historian 44: 70–71.

Recent invited talk

“License to Cut: Race, Regulation, and the Southern Beauty Industry.” Public talk, West Virginia University, Morgantown, September 17, 2026.

Work under review

With Marcus Witcher and Alicia Plemmons, “Rent-Seeking and State Regulatory Action: The Historical Case of Jitneys in the American South.” Under review at the Journal of Regulatory Economics.