Pronouns: she/her

Advisor: Thomas Brown

Education:  BA History (University of Maryland, May 2021) and MA Public History (University of South Carolina, May 2023)

Bio:

Gabrielle is a fifth-year PhD Candidate in the Department of History. Her dissertation analyzes middle-class American women's growing participation in recreational and competitive horseback riding from 1830 to 1890. She argues that horses, and women’s relationships with horses, allowed many women to challenge gender expectations, develop expertise in a historically male-dominated field, and construct female-dominated social networks. Her dissertation demonstrates how these various aspects of nineteenth-century horse(wo)manship enriched women's everyday lives. This year, Gabrielle is writing her dissertation full-time thanks to the generous support of the Russell J. and Dorothy S. Bilinski Fellowship.

Gabrielle has been awarded a variety of other scholarships for her research including the Kate B. and Hall J. Peterson Fellowship at the American Antiquarian Society (2025), the Wilfrid and Rebecca Callcott Award (2024), the R. Means Davis Fellowship in Southern Studies (2023), the Columbia Town Committee of the Colonial Dames Walter Edgar Scholarship (2023), and the South Carolina Humanities Graduate Student Scholarship (2022).

In addition to her dissertation, Gabrielle has also worked on a variety of public history projects. One of these projects has uncovered the identities and stories of people previously enslaved in Frederick City, Maryland. She has published on this topic with the American Historical Association Perspectives on History, the New York History Journal, and the Journal of Slavery and Data Preservation. She also recently curated an exhibit for the South Carolina Historical Society about the American Revolution in South Carolina. Her other public history experience includes a collections management internship at the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum, an exhibit design internship at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, and an education programming internship at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C.

Finally, Gabrielle has enjoyed working in a variety of teaching and leadership roles during her graduate studies. She worked as a Teaching Assistant in the History and Women's and Gender Studies departments for four years. She also worked as an Instructor of Record during the Summer of 2025. She has also served in a variety of leadership positions including serving on the Graduate History Association board for two years (2022-2024), acting as the Student Caucus Leader for WGS South (2024), and serving as the Committee Chair for the Department of Women's and Gender Studies Graduate Student Conference (2024).