Students

Amy NeeSmith

Graduate Research Assistant

Amy has contributed to the Cemetery School project, which involved developing a National Register nomination and exhibit plan, the "Two Families, Two Revolutions" exhibition at the Heritage Center, the Addison Museum Interpretation Plan for the Buchanan Log House, which included a virtual tour for the entire site, and the Chapman-Singleton House Historic Structure Report and Preservation Assessment, which included an inventory of the furnishings and other objects.

Amy is a graduate of Georgia Southern University. Her research interests are in material culture, the preservation of historic homes, historic archaeology, and women’s history.

Alexis Matrone

Graduate Research Assistant

Alexis has contributed to a variety of projects, including the National Register nomination of the David Hall campsite, which was the first of three campsites along the Selma to Montgomery Trail. Other projects include the building survey for the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail, the Hildebrand House in Polk County, Tennessee, and the Historic Structure Report for the Old Cumberland County Courthouse and Military Memorial Museum, among many others. Alexis is currently working on many projects involving the Trail of Tears, including work with Maramec Springs Park in Missouri on the interpretation of their museum and Trail of Tears site.

Alexis received her B.A. from the University of West Florida and her M.A. from MTSU. Alexis’s main area of study is Native American, Cherokee, and indigenous studies and the involvement of Public History. Her goal is to interpret and expand areas of history that have long been misinterpreted, misused, and ignored.

Paul Springer

Graduate Research Assistant

Paul, who is a Fisk University graduate, is working on the West Gaines Colored School project. The school is located in Lawrenceburg.

Paul’s research interests are in African American history, U.S. history, Civil Rights history, and Popular Culture.

Learn more about Paul at his LinkedIn profile.

Morgan Condrey

Graduate Research Assistant

Morgan is working on both the Cemetery School exhibition and the “Two Families, Two Revolutions” exhibition at the Heritage Center of Murfreesboro and Rutherford County. She worked on the National Register nomination for the Cemetery School and on the exhibition "Lasting Legacies: Butte's Black History."

Morgan is a graduate of Coastal Carolina University. Her research interests include ethnic history and conflict, community-based preservation projects, public interpretation of genocide through monuments and memorials, and preservation of family collections and archives.

Abby Jo Mullis

Graduate Research Assistant

A graduate of Salem College, Abby Jo has worked on heritage development recommendations for the H.B. Northcutt log house and the Fred O. McMahan barn. She has also contributed to a preservation assessment of the St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Fayette County.

Abby Jo's research interests are in material culture, equestrian history, and architectural history.

Her LinkedIn profile can be found here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abby-jo-mullis-612697181/.

Abigail Coomes

Graduate Research Assistant

Abigail's projects include the Matt Gardner Homestead Museum, Selma To Montgomery Campsites: Robert Gardner Farm, Chapman-Singleton Report, Riverside Farm Heritage Assessment and Interpretation Plan, Preservation Report for the Green Book House (Franklin, Tennessee), Two Families Exhibit, and the Moore Family Farm Brochure. Her main research interests are Southern material culture, land conservation in the South, American agricultural history, and historic home preservation.

Abigail has her B.A. from Morehead State University and her M.A. from MTSU. Learn more about her at https://abigailcoomes.wixsite.com/portfolio and https://www.linkedin.com/in/abigail-coomes-082b2a180.

Kate Hughes

Graduate Research Assistant

Kate is working on documentation of Stony Point, an 18th-century house in Hawkins County in East Tennessee, which is also the focus of her dissertation. In her work with the Center she is also assisting with various African American history projects, including the Merrill-Williams House in Williamson County, the collections of the Matt Gardner Homestead Museum in Giles County, and a number of Civil Rights sites in Alabama. In 2022, she completed an exhibit for the Tanner Rosenwald School in Newport, Tennessee, and assisted with a building survey for the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail. Additionally, she has a close working relationship with the Black Craftspeople Digital Archive, founded by Center alums Dr. Tiffany Momon and Dr. Torren Gatson.

Kate previously served as a historic preservation fellow at the Center, assisting with Trail of Tears research and examining new directions at East Coast museums in interpreting southern material culture, particularly with respect to enslaved life and post-emancipation history.

Her research focuses on the 18th- and 19th-century material culture of the American South, with an emphasis on exploring marginalized and ignored histories through objects, architecture, and place. Kate has previously worked at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the Historic Charleston Foundation, the McKissick Museum of the University of South Carolina, as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she contributed to the landmark exhibition and accompanying catalogue, Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina.

Kate has a B.A. from the College of William and Mary and an M.A. from Sotheby's Institute of Art. Her digital portfolio is at www.katecarsonhughes.com. Visit Kate’s LinkedIn page.

Amanda McCrary Smith

Graduate Research Assistant

Amanda earned her B.A. in History and American Studies at Lipscomb University in 1998, her M.A. in American Cultural and Intellectual History at Middle Tennessee State University in 2015, and her graduate certificate in Costume and Textiles Collection Management and Care from California State University at Long Beach in 2019. Most recently, she worked as the curator of textiles at the Tennessee State Museum from 2019-2021. She taught at Watkins College of Art, Design, and Film as an adjunct professor from 2010–2016. From 2015-2018, she was a full-time Instructor of History at Nashville State Community College, where she focused on American History, Western Civilization, and Tennessee History.

For her graduate research assistantship, she is working at Indian Mound State Park in Campbell County, Tennessee, to develop an interpretive plan regarding the history of the park, community, and surrounding area. Her research interests include environmental and natural history, historic landscapes (natural and built), industry and labor (specifically coal and textiles), and animal studies in visual culture.

Rebecca Mercedes Collins

Graduate Research Assistant

Mercedes has a Bachelor's degree in History from Grand Canyon University and is working on her M.A. in Public History here at MTSU. She will be working with the Center on History Day, as well as on projects related to the Cumberland Homesteads and the Smith-Trahern Mansion in Clarksville.

Mercedes is interested in preservation and genocidal research.

Amelia Blakely

Graduate Research Assistant

Amelia has Bachelor's degrees in Journalism and Philosophy from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. As she pursues her M.A. in Public History at MTSU, she is working with the Center on a preservation assessment of the Coomer Barn in Rutherford County.

Amelia is interested in rural American history, environmental history, and economic history. Visit her Web site at www.ameliablakelywrites.com.