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Faculty
Kristin Olbertson
Title
Charles A. Dana Professor of History
Department
History
Contact Info
Biography
Kristin A. Olbertson is a professor of history. Her career at Alma began in 2006. Her research focuses on colonial courts, particularly in matters of speech and gender. She is currently at work on a project investigating how women in eighteenth-century New England established credibility when testifying and what types of knowledge they provided in both civil and criminal cases.
Educational Background:
- B.A. History, Carleton College (1994)
- J.D., University of Michigan School of Law (2000)
- Ph.D. History, University of Michigan (2005)
Signature Courses:
Constitutional History; Approaches to Michigan History.
My Expertise
U.S. history through the Reconstruction era and U.S. legal, constitutional and women’s history.
Recent Work and Accomplishments
Olbertson, K. (2022). The Dreadful Word: Speech Crime and Polite Gentlemen in Massachusetts, 1690–1776 (Studies in Legal History). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009106535
Olbertson, K. (2013). Religion and Rights in Nineteenth-Century American Law: Reflections on the Work of Elizabeth B. Clark. American Journal of Legal History, 53(1), 121–130. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajlh/53.1.121