ABOUT ME

Historian, Author, Professor

Kathleen B. Casey is a writer, historian and expert on women, gender, and sexuality. She studies overlooked objects and ideas that define American life. Her research focuses on how gender, sexuality and race are embedded in everyday culture, from ordinary artifacts to pop culture performances.

Kathleen B. Casey, author

” At a small liberal arts university, I use feminist pedagogy to place my students at the center of their learning experience. I teach a broad range of subjects spanning much of American history, with a specific emphasis on race, gender, and sexuality in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Outside the classroom, I have enjoyed sharing my work and running workshops with non-profits, historical societies, bookstores, book clubs, and retirement communities.”

 

More About
Kathleen B. Casey

Casey holds a Ph.D. in American History with a certificate in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from the University of Rochester. She has taught courses on gender, sexuality, women’s history, African American history, clothing, the Long Civil Rights Movement, recreation, the 1920s, internships, and more. Her essays and research have appeared in numerous academic and public-facing publications.

Selected Work

  • The Things She Carried: A Cultural History of the Purse in America (Oxford University Press, 2025)
  • The Prettiest Girl On Stage is a Man: Race and Gender Benders in American Vaudeville (University of Tennessee Press, 2015)
  • Peer-reviewed articles on American vaudeville
  • Peer-reviewed articles on the Civil Rights Movement
  • Essays featured in anthologies
  • Popular writing

Current Service & Involvement

  • Director, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, Furman University, Aug 2023-Present
  • Facilitated growth which tripled the numbers of WGSS majors and minors in my first year, 2023-2025
  • Successfully advocated for, hired, and trained full-time WGSS Program Coordinator, 2023
  • Created “Friends of WGSS,” the first account for donors to make targeted gifts to support the WGSS Program, Oct 2023
  • Launched first fundraising campaign on behalf of WGSS Program and raised $100,000 dollars, 2023-2025 
  • Oversaw the creation of the first endowment for WGSS Program, the Savita Nair Endowment for WGSS, 2024-2025
  • Led drive to win Early “Dins Day” Donor Challenge two years in a row, raising more money than any other program, department, center or athletic team on campus, 2024, 2025
  • Recruited all founding members and helped establish Furman’s first ever LGBTQ+ Alumni Council, 2024-2025
  • Applied for and was awarded $15,000 grant from Furman Humanities Center to support a three-year lecture series, 2023
  • Organized a three-year interdisciplinary speaker series featuring collaborations with over a dozen departments, centers, and institutes, 2023-2026 
For speaking engagements, media appearances, classroom visits, or collaborative research opportunities:

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