Crystal Feimster

Crytsal Feimster is an Associate Professor at Yale University, holding joint appointments in the Departments of African American Studies, American Studies, and History. Her research focuses on racial and sexual violence, with a particular emphasis on the intersection of gender, race, and historical trauma. She earned her Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2000.

Feimster is the author of Southern Horrors: Women and the Politics of Rape and Lynching, which examines the roles of Ida B. Wells and Rebecca Latimer Felton in shaping narratives around racial violence. Her current project explores rape during the American Civil War.

Her teaching and research interests include U.S. history, African American intellectual history, and the historiography of violence. She is affiliated with Yale’s African American Studies and American Studies programs.