Dr. Katherine Burns

My research examines "Information Wanted" advertisements which are advertisements that formerly enslaved people used to reconnect with lost family members after the American Civil War. These advertisements are an underutilised historical resource and are vitally important for their portrayal of individual and collective social, emotional and political realities, particularly regarding the radical and revisionist ways in which they were used to record family histories. My work is underpinned by an interdisciplinary Black Feminist Studies methodology – particularly influenced by bell hooks' concept of homeplace as a site of resistance, as well as Jennifer L. Morgan’s concept of "refusal" – and this interdisciplinary methodological approach is the only way in which to sensitively and effectively examine these under-researched advertisements which were authored as a direct response to subjugation and oppression. Ultimately, my research considers the power and purpose of these adverts, delving closely into what they reveal about the transition from enslavement to a freedom that was in name only for African Americans, and more specifically what they reveal about the "spirit of slavery" as summarised by Frederick Douglass.

• 2024. "'She died from grief': Trauma and Emotion in Information Wanted Advertisements." In Slavery & Abolition 45(1): 99–116.