Participant Info

First Name
Erin N
Last Name
Bush
Country
United States
State
Affiliation
University of North Georgia
Website URL
http://erinbush.org/
Keywords
crime history, gender, women, forensic history, sensational trials, juvenile delinquency, progressive reform, historic homicides, jazzland murders, capital punishment, eugenics, domestic crime, nutshell studies of unexplained death
Availability
Media Contact
Additional Contact Information
PhD
PhD

Personal Info

Photo
About Me

I have expertise in the social and institutional responses to crime in United States history. I specifically focus on crimes committed by women and children, their sensational trials, and how gender, race, class, age, ethnicity and sexuality were categories deployed in their sentencing or acquittals. I am also the creator of Death in Diorama: The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, a digital project about Frances Glessner Lee, her miniature crime scenes (The Nutshell Studies), and her contributions to the history of forensic policing.

Recent Publications

“For the Protection of our Children: The 1922 Children’s Code and the Expansion of the Commonwealth’s Eugenic Surveillance Authority,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 131 (2023): 198–230. *Winner of the William M. E. Rachal Award for the Best Overall Article in the Virginia Magazine of History & Biography in 2023.

“Policing Immorality in a Virginia Girls’ Reformatory,” Southern Cultures 25(2). 2019: 46-61.

“‘Attracted by the Khaki’: War Camps and Wayward Girls in Virginia, 1918–1920,” Current Research in Digital History, Vol. 1, 2018. http://crdh.rrchnm.org/essays/v01-07-attracted-by-the-khaki/

“Finding the Truth in a Nutshell,” The Wellcome Collection, April 17, 2015. http://blog.wellcomecollection.org/2015/04/17/finding-the-truth-in-a-nutshell/

Media Coverage
Smithsonian Magazine Blog, 2 Complicated 4 History Podcast, Then Again Podcast, Vox Media, Fangirl Nation, Wellcome Collection Blog
Country Focus
United States
Expertise by Geography
United States
Expertise by Chronology
19th century, 20th century
Expertise by Topic
Computational, Family, Gender, Law, Local & Regional, Migration & Immigration, Pedagogy, Race, Sexuality, Sexual Violence, Urban History, Women