• O'Brassill-Kulfan, Kristin
  • Department: History Department
  • Position: Coordinator & Instructor of Public History
  • Research Interests: I am a public historian whose work examines links between class, labor status, race, crime, and punishment in the nineteenth century United States and the presentation of challenging histories to the twenty-first century public. I specialize in research-oriented archival methodologies, the construction of constituent-based narratives in public forums, and the inclusion of social history themes in bidirectional public history projects.
  • PhD (History) University of Leicester
  • Website: Visit Website
  • Phone: 848-932-8226
  • Office Location: 213C Van Dyck Hall

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

  • ‘’Vagrant Negroes:’ The Policing of Labor and Mobility in the Old South,” in Reviving Southern Labor History: Race, Class, and Power, eds Keri Leigh Merritt and Matthew Hild (University Press of Florida, forthcoming 2017)
  • “Vagabonds and Paupers:” Race and Illicit Mobility in the Early Republic,” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, Fall 2016
  • “The Antebellum Era (1820-1860)," and "The Colored Female Free Produce Society," in Women in American History: An Encyclopedia, ABC-Clio, forthcoming 2016
  • “Vagrancy,” The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities (MARCH), Rutgers University-Camden, 2016
  • Review of Jen Manion, Liberty’s Prisoners: Carceral Culture in Early America in Commonplace: The Journal of Early American Life, Fall 2016
  • Review of Cornelia H. Dayton and Sharon V. Salinger, Robert Love’s Warnings: Searching for Strangers in Colonial Boston, Institute of Historical Research’s Reviews in History, review no. 1726, 2015

PUBLIC HISTORY ENGAGEMENT

  • Research Analyst and Archivist, Pennsylvania House of Representatives Archives
  • Exhibitions Research Consultant, Department of Human History, National Museums of Northern Ireland
  • Public Programs Coordinator, Ephrata Public Library
  • Project Archivist, Center for Pennsylvania German Studies, Millersville University of Pennsylvania
  • Project Archivist, Historical Society of the Cocalico Valley
  • Project Archivist, Pennsylvania Folklife Society Collection, Ursinus College

AWARDS & FELLOWSHIPS

  • Ethics and Epistemology in the Archives Fellowship, Prindle Institute for Ethics, Depauw University, Greencastle, IN, 2016
  • Lord Baltimore Fellowship, Maryland Historical Society, 2015-2016
  • Society for Historians of the Early American Republic Graduate Student Award, 2015
  • College of Arts, Humanities, and Law Research Grant, University of Leicester, 2015
  • Peter Parish Memorial Award, Association of British American Nineteenth Century Historians, 2014
  • Dissertation Distinction, School of History & Anthropology, Queen’s University Belfast, 2012
  • Skills Engagement Award, Public History, Queen’s University Belfast, 2012
  • International Postgraduate Scholarship, Queen’s University Belfast, 2011-12

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

  • National Council on Public History
  • International Federation for Public History
  • Society for Historians of the Early American Republic
  • Pennsylvania Historical Association
  • Labor and Working Class History Association
  • Association of British American Nineteenth Century Historians
  • Society of American Archivists