Kathleen Cairns

Lecturer, History

Fields

• California
• Depression era (California and U.S.)
• Crime
• Media
• Women

Contact Information

• Office: Bldg. 47 Rm. 25B 
• Phone: (805) 765-2543
• E-mail: kcairns@calpoly.edu
   

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About Kathleen Cairns

Dr. Kathleen Cairns is a lecturer (retired annuitant) in the History/Women's & Gender Studies Departments at Cal Poly. She holds a Ph.D in history from the University of California, Davis. Her research interests include popular culture and media; women and crime; women in law and California history. She is the author of four books: "Front-Page Women Journalists, 1920-1950;" "The Enigma Woman: The Death Sentence of Nellie May Madison;" "Hard-Time at Tehachapi: California's First Women's Prison;" and "Proof of Guilt: Barbara Graham and the Politics of Executing Women in America." She is currently working on a book about former California Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird and her role in politicizing the judiciary. Before entering academics, she spent a decade as a reporter for Knight-Ridder newspapers. 

Education

• Ph.D. University of California, Davis (1995)
• B.A. (1976), M.A. (1989) History, California State University, Long Beach

Selected Publications and Presentations

Conference papers, 2007-08

• “Murder Most Feminine,” Berkshire Conference of Women Historians, June 2008, Minneapolis, MN.
• “Woman to Woman, Class, Conflict and the Tehachapi Prison Experience in California.” Western Association of Women Historians, San Diego, May. 
• “Writing for their Lives, ‘The Clarion’ and Female Inmates at the California Institution for Women, Tehachapi.” Western History Association, Oklahoma City, OK, October.

Books

• Proof of Guilt: Barbara Graham and the Politics of Executing Women in America, University of Nebraska Press (2013).
• Hard Times: The History of the California Institution for Women, Tehachapi, 1933-1952. University of New Mexico Press (2009).
• The Enigma Woman: The Death Penalty of Nellie May Madison, University of Nebraska Press (May 2007).
• Front-Page Women Journalists, 1920-1950, University of Nebraska Press (May 2003).
   

Articles

• “Writing for Their Lives,” Western Legal History (Fall, 2008).
• “Enigma Woman: Nellie Madison, Femme Fatales and Noir Fiction,” Montana, the Magazine of Western History(Spring 2004).            

Organizational Memberships

• Western Association of Women Historians
• Western History Association

Courses

• HIST 208 – California History
• HIST 322 – Twentieth Century America
• HIST 435 – Women’s History
• HIST 440 – Special Topics