Choose a place
Life, travel, and scholarship.
Select a place to see its story and related work. A paper marker means I wrote about a place; it does not imply I visited.
9 lived/worked and travel records · 4 geographic papers
Browse all five papers →Reese W. Hollister
History, made
clear and tangible.
Historian. Educator. Public scholarship creator.
I study how infrastructures, images, and institutions shape life after empire—and turn that research into writing, maps, teaching, and things people can use.
CV / Resume →An atlas of places & perspectives
Follow a place into the work.
Where I’ve lived and worked, where I’ve traveled, and the places I’ve written about.
Follow the work backwards through time
Place group
The Mid-Atlantic
- Museum visitor services
- B.A. in History and Political Science
Two places a short drive apart in the northeastern United States: a museum front desk in Bucks County, and an undergraduate degree in the Bronx.
Inside Mid-Atlantic
Lived / worked / studied in · Mercer Museum
Doylestown, Pennsylvania
- Museum visitor services
- Public history
Visitor services at the Mercer Museum and Fonthill Castle in Bucks County — the front desk of a museum where the history is the building and the collection you walk through.
Lived / worked / studied in · Manhattan College
The Bronx, New York
- B.A. in History and Political Science
Undergraduate history and political science, published in peer-reviewed history journals, and the first work on postcolonial Africa and French institutional history.
Lived / worked / studied in · NC State University
Raleigh, North Carolina
- Master of International Studies
- Graduate Teaching Assistant — PS 331: U.S. Foreign Policy
- Graduate Writing Consultant, Academic Success Center (CRLA Level III)
Graduate study, teaching, and writing consultation — and the base where the research projects, datasets, and Huruf La’b were built.
Related work
- University Teaching and Student Support Made here
- From Colonies to Carriers Made here
- Huruf La’b: Teaching the Arabic Script by Building It Made here
- How Highways Decided Morocco's Victory in the Western Sahara Conflict Made here
- Truth After Tazmamart Made here
Lived / worked / studied in
Manah, Oman
- Immersive Arabic study
Immersive Arabic study in Manah, with language learning carried into everyday encounters and field trips across Oman.
Related work
- Oman / Arabic Language Study Made here
Place group · Fulbright U.S. Student Program
Morocco
- Fulbright Scholar — field-based research
- History Teacher and BrainLyne Convenor
- Arabic and Darija study
A Fulbright year of research in Ifrane, archival work at the Mohammed VI Library, history teaching in Rabat, and travel around Morocco. It grounded the North Africa focus that runs through everything since.
Inside Morocco
Related work
- Fulbright Morocco / International Research & Teaching Made here
- How Highways Decided Morocco's Victory in the Western Sahara Conflict Studies this place
- Truth After Tazmamart Studies this place
Lived / worked / studied in · American Language Center, Rabat
Rabat, Morocco
- History Teacher and BrainLyne Convenor
Taught history and convened BrainLyne, a student research and university-access writing program, in an Arabic-language environment.
Related work
- University Teaching and Student Support Made here
Lived / worked / studied in · Al Akhawayn University
Ifrane, Morocco
- Fulbright research base
- Archival research
The research base for the Fulbright year: a French colonial hill station turned American-style university, and an archive of postcards, letters, advertisements, photographs, maps, and ephemera.
Related work
Traveled to
Chefchaouen, Morocco
The blue city in the Rif, visited during the Fulbright year.
Traveled to
Merzouga, Morocco
The dunes of Erg Chebbi on the Saharan edge of the country.
Traveled to
Fez, Morocco
- Travel
A visit to Fez during the Fulbright year, documented in the Fez and Ifrane weekend dispatch.
Read the Fez and Ifrane dispatch ↗
Published paper · American West
Photography, Identity, Power: William Henry Jackson and the American Colonial Gaze
Photographs spanning William Henry Jackson’s long career tell the story of settler colonialism — the racial ideologies that drove the dispossession of American Indian nations, and the closing of the frontier.
The shaded American West is a schematic research area, not a precise survey boundary.
Published paper · Vietnam
Postcolonial Museums and National Identity in Vietnam
After North and South merged, the unified Vietnamese state used museums and monuments to reimagine its identity — an official history built on anti-colonialism, shared trauma, and socialist solidarity.
Published paper · Japan
Japanese Peace and Soft Power: Osaka Expo ’70 in the Cold War’s Space Race
Barred from offensive force by Article 9, Japan used Osaka Expo ’70 and its new space programme to show power by non-military means — a World’s Fair as a rebranding of the nation as a peaceful internationalist.
Published paper · South Africa
The Sharpeville Massacre, Violence, and the Struggles of the African National Congress, 1960–1990
The ANC’s own internal writings show the Sharpeville Massacre of 21 March 1960 as the turning point at which the Congress changed its attitude towards violence as a means of resistance.
- Fulbright MoroccoInternational research and teaching · 2023–24
- M.I.S. · NC StateMaster of International Studies · 2026
- CRLA Level IIICertified writing consultation
- VenturePack award$4,000 for Huruf La’b · 2026
Selected work
An argument. A tool. A way to learn.
Three projects that connect research to something you can read, explore, or use.
From Colonies to Carriers
Managing incomplete historical sources to build a 723-record airline encyclopedia, maps, a paper, and a presentation.
- Deck
- Paper
- Dataset
- Map
Huruf La’b: Teaching the Arabic Script by Building It
A tactile method for early Arabic literacy — built from classroom friction, tested with teachers, and refined around what they asked for.
- Award
- Product
- Arabic
- Teaching
Western Sahara Highways
Research on how highways, logistics corridors, and territorial administration helped Morocco convert claims over Western Sahara into durable control.
- Deck
- Map
- Timeline
- Roads
Follow a question
Three ways into the work
Curated paths across projects and publications.
Reading path / 01
Infrastructure & power
How do roads and airlines turn political claims into everyday systems?
Reading path / 02
Images & national identity
How do photographs, museums, and world’s fairs shape the way a nation is seen?
Reading path / 03
Teaching through making
What happens when historical knowledge and language learning become things people can use?
Experience
Research, education, and the people behind both.
NC State University · PS 331: U.S. Foreign Policy
University course and student support
Supported instruction, grading, and student advising in an 80-student lecture course.
University support case study →NC State Academic Success Center
Individual writing consultation
Worked one-on-one with writers across disciplines on research papers, graduate applications, and academic assignments.
Teaching and consultation →American Language Center, Rabat
Teaching and educational programs
Taught history and facilitated student research and university-access writing during my Fulbright year in Morocco.
Public engagement case study →Travel · Chefchaouen
Places have their own stories.
Photographs, diagrams, and project materials, with the context that connects them.
Explore the media collection →For employers and collaborators
Let’s make something useful.
Get in touch about program support, education, research, communication, or a project that needs careful organization and follow-through.
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