I’m Mary Draper, a historian and professor.
I am a historian of Early America working at the intersection of environmental, imperial, and maritime history.
I’m currently writing a book on the environmental history of the Caribbean. It considers how residents of the British sugar islands made sense of the region’s maritime environment, from sandy shorelines to ocean currents to prevailing winds. Their knowledge of these coastlines and seascapes informed how empire operated in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
I teach all things early American. I’ve taught classes on colonial and Revolutionary America, Caribbean history, slavery in the Atlantic World, and disasters in American history.
I am an Associate Professor at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas. I earned my BA from Rice University, and my MA and PhD from the University of Virginia. When I’m not teaching, writing, or grading, you’ll find me hiking in the nearest state park, cruising as a Resident Historian on Viking Ocean Cruises, or cooking with fresh veggies from my local CSA share.
You can reach me at mary.draper@msutexas.edu.
