Dr. Kaisha Esty, '“Live as Becomes a Free Christian Woman”: Freedwomen and State-Sanctioned Reform in the Era of Emancipation'

Please note that this episode contains discussion of sexual violence. This week, PhD candidates Sam Lanevi and Megan Renoir sit down with Dr. Kaisha Esty to discuss her current research project. Dr. Esty is Assistant Professor of History, African American Studies, and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. She’s on sabbatical this year as an AAUW postdoctoral fellow and resident fellow at the Rothermere American Institute. Her work explores the lives of African American women in the nineteenth century, during the transition from slavery to emancipation. She focuses on the strategies and values that shaped their intimate lives and sense of self, situating these within the broader context of U.S. nation building and westward expansion. The article Kaisha refers to is linked here: Kaisha Esty, ““I Told Him to Let Me Alone, That He Hurt Me”: Black Women and Girls and the Battle over Labor and Sexual Consent in Union-Occupied Territory,” Labor (2022) 19 (1): 32–51. https://doi.org/10.1215/15476715-9475702 Co-hosts: Megan Renoir (PhD Candidate) researches the history of US land institutions, 19th and 20th century federal Indian policy, and violence against the NCRNT, with the aim of informing and expanding our understanding of the relationships between federalism, Western property institutions and intractable land conflicts. Sam Lanevi (PhD Candidate) researches World War II fraternization and war bride policy with a particular focus on German and Japanese war brides. Production by Daisy Semmler (MPhil 2025).