Alyssa Martin smiling

Biography

B.A. in History, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2021
M.A. in History, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2023
M.A. in History, University of California, Irvine, 2025

Advisor: Dr. Chelsea Schields

Research interests: United States history, environmental history, history of oil, energy history

My research examines the Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood of New Orleans and its synchronous development with the city’s oil industry. I analyze how the creation and expansion of the oil industry created, reproduced, and reshaped racialized and gendered norms, both socially and economically, outside of the traditional “boom town” geography.