About

Historian, educator, and writer Charlene J. Fletcher holds a Ph.D. in History from Indiana University, specializing in race, gender, and confinement in the 19th-century United States.

Charlene is an assistant professor of history and an affiliate faculty member in the Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (RGSS) program at Butler University. Before attending IU, Charlene led a domestic violence/sexual assault program as well as a significant reentry initiative in New York City, assisting women and men in their transition from incarceration to society, and also served as a lecturer of Criminal Justice at LaGuardia Community College.

Charlene’s research and forthcoming book explores the experiences of confined African American women in Kentucky from Reconstruction to the Progressive Era, explicitly illuminating the lives of confined Black women by examining places other than carceral locales as arenas of confinement, including mental health institutions and domestic spaces. She explores how these women defied and defined confinement through their incarceration and interactions with the period’s public, social, and political entities and how they challenged ideas of race and femininity.

In addition to her research, Dr. Fletcher is a Community Scholar at the Center for Africana Studies and Culture at Indiana University, Indianapolis. Charlene’s work is motivated by her personal and professional experiences — particularly her work with individuals and families impacted by domestic violence and incarceration — and these experiences continue to fuel her passion for her work today.