Professor Emerita
Research Interests: Social History of Crime and Violence, British and Irish History, Britain and the Third World
Education:
- B.A., Duke University, 1972, Dissertation: “Crime and Justice in Victorian Kent”
- M.A., University of Chicago, 1976
- Ph.D., Duke University, 1975, History
Worked at the University of Alabama at Birmingham from 1985-2014.
- Professor Emerita, April 2015
- Chairman of the History Department, 2008-2012
- Director of Graduate Studies, 1988-1989; 1993-2001; 2007
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Select Publications
Books:
- The Unwritten Law: Criminal Justice in Victorian Kent (Oxford, 1991)
- Melancholy Accidents: The Meaning of Violence in Post-Famine Ireland (Lexington Books, 1999)
- Certain Other Countries: Homicide and National Identity in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, 1867-1892 (Ohio State University Press, 2007)
- Debauched, Deranged and Desperate: Women Tried for Homicide in London 1674-1913 (forthcoming, Oxford University Press)
Published in:
- Oxford Handbook on Gender, Sex and Crime
- Crime, Law and Popular Culture in Europe Since 1500
- Journal of British Studies
- New Hibernia Review, Journal of Social History
- Eire-Ireland
- Victorian Studies
- Journal of Interdisciplinary History
- Canadian Journal of History
- Journal of Modern History
- Peace and Change
- Albion
- H-Net
- The Historian
- American Historical Review
- Journal of Legal History
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Presentations
- “Female Killers in London, 1671-1913” Plenary Lecture; The Metropolis on Trial conference held at the Open University, United Kingdom, July 14, 2008
- “Unsexing Themselves? Women and Homicide in the late Victorian United Kingdom” International Association of Historians of Crime and Criminal Justice Le Maison de Sciences de l”Hommes Paris France, June 5-7, 2003
- “ ‘Innocent Life and Weak and Feeble Women’: domestic violence in late Victorian Ireland and Scotland” International Conference on the History of Violence, University of Liverpool, July, 2001
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Fellowships and Grants
- National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend, 1991
- American Philosophical Society Research Grant, 2000
- National Science Foundation ADVANCE Professorship, 2004-2005
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Awards and Professional Organizations
Awards
- Roger McHugh Prize for “the outstanding learned essay in Irish studies,” 2001
- Graduate Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring, 2014
Professional Organizations
- American Historical Association
- North American Conference on British Studies
- American Conference on Irish Studies
- Social Science History Association
- International Association for the History of Crime and Criminal Justice