Charlene Fletcher

Dr. Fletcher is the Frances Shera Fessler Assistant Professor of History. She holds a Ph.D. in History from Indiana University.

Before entering the academy, Charlene led a domestic violence/sexual assault program and a significant reentry initiative in New York City, assisting women and men in their transition from incarceration to society, and served as a lecturer of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York. Charlene’s forthcoming book Confined Femininity: Race, Gender, and Incarceration in Kentucky, 1865-1920, 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. Charlene’s newest research project is rooted in her grandmother's memories, takes a transnational approach to race and confinement in the American South, and builds on Charlene's interest in Italian history. The project, Down in the Delta: Race Relations between African and Italian Americans in Mississippi, 1880-1940, explores Italian migration and experiences in the Mississippi Delta between the late nineteenth and the mid-twentieth centuries. It interrogates the Italian padrone system as a form of confinement. It examines relationships between Italians and African Americans because of shared proximity and experience in the rural Jim Crow South.

 In addition to her research, Dr. Fletcher is a Community Scholar at the Center for Africana Studies and Culture at Indiana University Indianapolis. She also serves on the editorial boards of The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society and the North Meridian Review. She is an elected member of the National Council of Public History (NCPH) Board of Directors.

To learn more about Charlene and her work, visit www.charlenejfletcher.com