Hannah Reynolds (she/her) is a doctoral candidate at Northwestern University specializing in U.S. women's and gender history of the nineteenth century. Her dissertation analyzes how legislators, land office agents, and settlers themselves applied the legal and economic logic of viewing women as a route to stable property ownership under the aegis of the Homestead Act of 1862. She is also interested in the unexpected developments that came from this aspect of federal land distribution, such as successful homestead claims made by Black women in Alabama in the 1890s as well as the proliferation of women who speculated for profit on the public lands. She holds a B.A. in History from Vassar College and an M.A. in History from Portland State University. Prior to graduate school, Hannah worked for five years as a social studies teacher and speech and debate coach at a rural public school and remains committed to inclusive teaching and learning.