Everything has a history and those stories should be accessible to everyone. With this in mind, Charlene has several public history initiatives and publications that are listed below:
Charlene currently serves as consulting historian for the Oldest Profession Podcast. Each episode of the Oldest Profession focuses on an “old pro” from history, contextualizing that figure in their own time and connecting their story to the ongoing struggle for sex worker rights. The Oldest Profession Podcast is a public history project elevating sex worker stories.
While serving as an editorial assistant for the American Historical Review, Charlene conducted several awesome interviews for the journal’s podcast, AHR Interview. The first was with Dr. Elizabeth Hinton of Harvard University on the future of carceral studies and the second was a series of interviews with historians about the impact of the blockbuster hit Black Panther.
AHR Interview: Elizabeth Hinton Discusses Carceral Studies and Scholarly Activism
AHR Interview: Tanisha Ford on the Film Black Panther
AHR Interview: Nwando Achebe on the Film Black Panther
AHR Interview: Andre Carrington on the Film Black Panther
AHR Interview: Sean Jacobs on the Film Black Panther
In partnership with the Louisville Free Public Library and Lean Into Louisville’s efforts to explore, discuss, and address histories of inequality, Charlene presented an interactive talk about family violence in 19th century domestic spaces and recounted the lives of Fannie Keys Harvey and Lila B. White, African American women who were incarcerated at the Kentucky Penitentiary after fighting back against their abusive families. Using their stories, Charlene reflected on acts of resistance and brings awareness to this dark chapter of history. The talk, “Home Ain’t Always Where the Heart Is: Women, Confinement, and Race in the Gilded Age,” can be found here.
Publications
Book Chapter
Forthcoming
“Home Ain’t Always Where the Heart Is: The Home as a Site of Confinement,” in Re-visiting My Old Kentucky Home: Slavery and Freedom in the Bluegrass State (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, forthcoming).
Dissertation
2020
“Confined Femininity: Race, Gender, and Incarceration in Kentucky, 1865-1920.” Indiana University.
Book Reviews
Fletcher-Brown, C. Review of Liberty’s Prisoners: Carceral Culture in Early America, by Jen Manion, Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, 115, no. 3 (Summer 2017): 419-421.
Web-Based Publications
Fletcher-Brown, Charlene. “Early Stories of Domestic Violence Raise Awareness, Foster Healing.” The Blog of the Kentucky Historical Society. November 4, 2016.
Fletcher-Brown, C. Multiple Submissions in Significant People in African American History, BlackPast.org, (2014-2015).
Fletcher-Brown, C. “The Palmer Raids” in 1914-1918 Online: International Encyclopedia of the First World War. (2014)
Fletcher-Brown, C. “U.S. Race Riots” 1914-1918 Online: International Encyclopedia of the First World War, (2014).