Meet Historian, Author, Professor Kathleen Casey
Kathleen B. Casey is an American historian and scholar of women, gender, and sexuality with a passion for uncovering how seemingly small things reveal big stories about gender in the past and present. Her latest book, The Things She Carried, reveals how the purse—with its cavernous, pocketed interior—has provided marginalized Americans with much-needed space, privacy, and power.
When she’s not reading, writing, or teaching, Kathleen enjoys going on hikes, gardening, jogging, and fostering dogs with the humane society.
KATHLEEN B. CASEY
PhD/ Author
The Things She Carried
A Cultural History of the Purse in America
by Kathleen B. Casey
📚 Available August 2025 | Order directly from Oxford and use the code AAFLYG6 to get 30% off
About The Book
From the sacks enslaved people carried in antebellum America to the ways in which gay men dared to wear purses in the 1970s and 80s, The Things She Carried examines how sacks, bags, and purses have been much more than a fashion accessory.
Click here to see a timeline of important episodes in American purse history
Advance Praise for The Things She Carried
Latest News & Media
Check out my interview with the “Curious by Nature” Podcast
Also available on Spotify and Apple podcasts https://www.newswise.com/articles/curious-by-nature-dr-kathleen-casey-why-do-we-care-about-purses
TV appearance on Fox Carolina
Check out my appearance on Fox Carolina’s morning show with Margaret Burnquist. https://www.foxcarolina.com/video/2025/08/12/book-highlights-fascinating-history-purse/
Oxford University Press Blog: Timeline of the Cultural History of the Purse
In conducting research for The Things She Carried: A Cultural History of the Purse in America, Kathleen B. Casey discovered how one everyday object—the purse—could function as a portal to […]
The Purse Is More Than a Fashion Statement. It’s a Historical and Social Signifier.
Far more than fashion, the purse has long served as a vessel of identity, resistance and survival—especially for those pushed to society’s margins. The Purse Is More Than a Fashion […]
Casey’s book about purses reviewed in Foreward and Library Journal
What do purses, sacks and bags tell us about important moments in history? Furman University’s Kathleen B. Casey lays it all out in her new book “The Things She Carried: A Cultural […]
Teaching Sex to Empower, Not to Control: Sex Ed in Sweden vs. South Carolina
A group of South Carolina students travels to Sweden to explore a radically different model of sex education—one rooted in trust, inclusivity and scientific facts … rather than fear, control […]
