U.S. cultural and social history; popular culture; social thought; animal studies; women’s and gender history; U.S. social movements; modern South Asia.
Davis serves as a regular consultant for museum exhibitions and film projects related to the circus arts, public amusements, popular culture, and the cultural history of American animals. She is the author of a forthcoming book, The Gospel of Kindness: Animal Welfare and the Making of Modern America, a transnational social and cultural history of the U.S. animal welfare movement from the 1830s to the eve of World War II, which will be published by Oxford University Press.