Mariaelena (Maria) DiBenigno, Ph.D. is the Mellon Postdoctoral Research Fellow at James Monroe’s Highland, a historic site located in Charlottesville, Virginia and a part of William & Mary (W&M), a university located in Williamsburg, Virginia. After several years as a public school teacher, she completed her MA in English at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and received her PhD from the American Studies Program at W&M, where her dissertation studied the relationship between popular culture, public history, and the power of place. Maria has worked with several history organizations in Virginia, including the Mariners’ Museum Library and Menokin Foundation. She has also instructed courses for W&M’s American Studies Program and National Institute of American History and Democracy. Before joining Highland’s staff, she was a staff member at W&M Libraries Special Collections Research Center where she designed exhibits and worked with new collections. Maria’s expertise is in historic house museums in Virginia and sharing polyvocal histories with academic and general audiences.