(Posted October 31, 2011)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Erica Hayden, a doctoral candidate in history at Vanderbilt University and a 2007 Juniata College graduate, will return to campus to give a talk on 19th century female criminals in Pennsylvania and their prison experiences at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 8, in Neff Lecture Hall in the von Liebig Center for Science.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Hayden's talk will focus on her doctoral research on how prison officials in Pennsylvania dealt with female inmates and how the treatment women received in prison affected their path to rehabilitation.

Hayden, the daughter of Loren Rhodes, Dale Chair in Information Technology at Juniata College, and Donna Rhodes, of Huntingdon, Pa., will speak on, "Her 'Depraved Bosom': Pennsylvania's Female Criminals and Their Experiences in Prison 1820-1860."

Hayden's talk will focus on her doctoral research on how prison officials in Pennsylvania dealt with female inmates and how the treatment women received in prison affected their path to rehabilitation. She also will address how female prison reformers improved conditions for female inmates. Hayden started her research in female criminality as part of her senior thesis capstone research project at Juniata.

Hayden graduated from Juniata in 2007, earning a bachelor's degree in history. She went on to earn a master's degree in 2009 in history from Vanderbilt and currently is working on her dissertation for her doctoral degree at the university.

She has written articles slated for publication in journal The Social History of Crime and Punishment in American History and presented research at conferences in Cambridge, England; Warsaw, Poland; Colorado Springs, Colo.; and Norman, Okla.

She has worked as a teaching assistant at Vanderbilt in courses on the Civil War, Victorian Britain and Modern Medicine. She is a member of several professional organizations, including the organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association and the Society for the History of the Early American Republic.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.