Kathleen A. Kennedy

Dr. Kathleen A. Kennedy serves as the Department Head of the History Department at Missouri State University (Springfield campus). Her academic journey includes a PhD (1992) and MS (1988) from the University of California, Irvine, and a BA (1984) from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh.

Her research focuses on gendered and racial constructions of violence, trauma studies, and cultural history. Key themes include the intersection of trauma and historical writing, fatherhood in slave narratives, and the representation of violence in early American and modern popular culture.

Her notable works include analyses of Cotton Mather’s colonial trauma narratives, the cultural portrayal of pain in early modern contexts, and explorations of militarism in science fiction. She has also published on subversive women during WWI and trauma in detective fiction.

Awards include the Judith Lea Ridge Article Prize (1999) and the Outstanding Faculty Member Award (2012). Prior to Missouri State, she taught at Western Washington University and the University of Texas at Dallas. Her philosophy emphasizes canine superiority over other pets.