Anna is a doctoral candidate focusing on twentieth century American history with a focus on gender and sexuality. She received her BA in 2016 from Ohio State University in History and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Her research interests include the histories of student activism as well as queer and feminist studies.
Her dissertation focuses on how students redefined rape on college campuses during the Women's Liberation and Civil Rights Movements. These activists created rape crisis clinics and organized consciousness raising groups to reframe how women understood sexual violence. Furthermore, this study examines how universities used discourse on violence against women to separate the “safe space” of campus from comparatively dangerous off-campus neighborhoods. Institutions of higher education have long been accused of gentrifying their communities, this dissertation further contends that campus police use the threat of sexual violence to target men of color in the areas surrounding campus.
Richey’s research has been supported through the Schlesinger Library Dissertation Research Grant, the Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis, the John Whiteclay Chambers II Fellowship for Oral History, and the Neal Ira Rosenthal Travel Award.
