Jennifer Walton-Hanley

---

Jennifer Walton-Hanley

Associate Professor

Undergraduate Advisor

Ph.D., University of Kentucky, 2009

Fields: African American and Race, Civil War & Reconstruction, U.S. 1750-1930, 19th-Century Britain

Office:  Cherry Hall 223B

Phone:  (270) 745-4723

Email:  jennifer.walton-hanley@wku.edu

 

Research Interests

The back-to-Africa movement in a state and in a national context. Nationally, I examine the activities of the American Colonization Society in the aftermath of the Civil War, with a particular focus on the late nineteenth, early twentieth century. I am currently working on two related projects in this field: Colonization as a transnational alternative to the problems of Reconstruction and the role of women in the antebellum Kentucky colonization movement. In addition, I have a strong interest in women's and gender history and have worked extensively in these areas. I am also working on a study of a nineteenth-century Kentucky family dynamics using letters written in the 1840s between Joseph and Elizabeth Underwood. Once I have finished these projects I will be focusing my attention on Southern Women and Race at the Chicago World's Exhibition of 1893.

 

Teaching Interests

Because my major field incorporates both African American and Race history, I spend a lot of my time teaching about race relations in American history. I have taught upper-division survey courses in both halves of African American history, upper division and graduate courses in World History and colonial theory, Native American History, and American Women's history. In addition, I have taught both halves of Western Civilizations and the American history Survey courses. Finally, I have taught a variety of other courses including: The History of Africa, Civil War and Reconstruction, and my personal favorite, the History of Rock and Roll.