Ryan Quintana is an associate professor of 19^th Century American History at Wellesley College with specialties in the history of political development and the state, slavery and emancipation, and the production of space.  He is the author of Making a Slave State: Political Development in Early South Carolina (University of North Carolina Press, 2018).  He is currently working on his second book project, “We Do Not Want to Be Slaves”: Empire and Expansion in the Age of Emancipation, which examines the everyday labors and governing practices of empire and infrastructural development in the North American West during the Civil War Era. When he’s not in the archives or the classroom, he enjoys working in his garden, riding his bike, and hoping that Manchester United will somehow turn it all around.

Kathryn “KT” Shively is an associate professor of Civil War and Reconstruction history at Virginia Commonwealth University with specialties in early American military, environmental, and medical history. They are the author of Nature’s Civil War: Common Soldiers and the Environment in 1862 Virginia (University of North Carolina Press, 2013) and co-editor with Caroline Janney of the forthcoming volume, The Second Manassas Campaign (UNC Press, expected 2025). They also serve as co-PI with Paul Quigley (Virginia Tech) on the NEH-funded public history project, “Experiencing Civil War History Through Augmented Reality: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Environment at Pamplin Historical Park.” Their second monograph, History Wars: Jubal A. Early and the Confederate Origins of Modern American History, is under contract with University of Georgia Press for submission in 2025. Their favorite part of being a Civil War historian is giving battlefield tours, and they spend their non-working hours hosting bluegrass jams, making pies, hiking, and reading with their kid.