January 11, 2023

Sarah (She/Her) is a PhD candidate at Brandeis University specializing in loyalty, community violence, and the repression of political dissent during the era of the American Revolution. ​ Her dissertation, “Policing the Revolution: Massachusetts Communities and The Committees of Correspondence, Inspection, and Safety, 1773-1783” explores the Committees through the lens of early American carcerality. Exploring extra-legal reprisals, intimidation, incarceration, and property confiscation, this dissertation argues that the Committees employed an ever-expanding definition of loyalty as a method of social control, ensuring community compliance with the Revolutionary effort by repressing political dissent. Her work has been supported by the Massachusetts Historical Society / Society of the Cincinnati Fellowship, the Gilder Lehrman Short Term Fellowship, the United Empire Loyalist Association of Canada, and the Wellesley Mary McEwen Schimke Fellowship. She holds a Masters Degree in History from the University of Edinburgh and a BA from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College. In 2021 she received the MHS Society of the Cincinnati and Gilder Lehrman Short Term Fellowships. You can follow Beth on Twitter: @phdinprogress17