Chair
History and Religion Department
- Phone
- (403) 329-2546
- Fax
- (403) 329-5108
- Email
- lynn.kennedy@uleth.ca
Biography
Lynn received her BA (Hons) from the University of Western Ontario in 1993. In 1994 she completed her Master's Degree in history at Queen's University in Kingston, and then earned a Masters of Library and Information Science at UWO in 1995. In 1999 she once again returned to the University of Western Ontario to begin her PhD. Her doctoral dissertation, "Partus Sequitur Ventrem: Meanings of Childbirth and Motherhood in the Antebellum South," was completed in 2004 and received the 2005 Lerner-Scott Prize for the best dissertation in US Women's history from the Organization of American Historians.
Research Interests
Lynn's research interests focus on the Southern United States before the Civil War, particularly on the link between domestic relationships and broader social and political structures. Her book "Born Southern: Childbirth, Motherhood & Social Networks in the Old South" was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2010.
Her current book project is examining the use of gossip in forming social communities among elite whites in the antebellum South. She is also working on research that explores the gender, race, and class relationships involved in the tasks of sewing and clothing production within the Southern household.
Her class offerings include courses on Slavery & Abolition, and on the history of the Civil Rights movement.
