Zara is a “Historian with a Thing for Things.” She also has a passion for building bridges between academic and public history. In her free time, she hangs out with her children as they’ll let her, indulges too often in truffle fries, and sings musical theater. The author of Portrait of a Woman: Hidden Histories of the British Atlantic World (Yale University Press, 2016), she is also an Associate Professor of History and Art History at the University of Delaware.

Jo is a historian who is fascinated by American culture, capitalism, and the lives of ordinary people. She found out early on that the bits she liked best in historical novels were the parts when they described how things got made, worn, or used (she’s not fussy: doors, dresses, houses, medicines, you get the idea). She also loves musical theater and any walk that takes more than 2 hours, goes past some water and finishes with a cream tea. She will use any excuse to go to New York. The author of Luxurious Citizens: The Politics of Consumption in Nineteenth-Century America (Penn University Press, 2017), she is a Reader in American History at Queen Mary University of London.

TK Smith is a Philadelphia-based curator, writer, and cultural historian. He is Assistant Curator: Art of the African Diaspora at the Barnes Foundation. His writing has been published in Art in America, the Brooklyn Rail, and ART PAPERS. Currently, Smith is a doctoral candidate in the History of American Civilization program at the University of Delaware.

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Laura is a museum professional and historian of gender, the body, and material culture in the British Atlantic world. She has worked with museums in upstate New York and the greater Philadelphia region, and she’s written for publications including Lady Science Magazine and The Washington Post. These days, you’ll find her engrossed in the books she told herself she could read once she finished her dissertation.

Nora, an Associate Curator at Historic New England, specializes in design, dress, and material culture in the 19th & 20th centuries. She is passionate about telling cultural and political stories through objects, popular culture, and ephemera. When not doing all the history and curatorial things, you can find her curled up reading fantasy, watching everything from Scream to Million Dollar Mermaid, or at the Disney parks with her husband and family.  #womenalsoknowhistory

 Kayle R. Avery is an interdisciplinary curator, historian, and digital artist writing at the intersection of imagination, creativity, and virtuality. His latest work explores the history and material culture of imagined worlds—from the first model train collectors to the colonial revival and recent video games.