Halee Robinson is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History. She currently works on the histories of race, freedom, citizenship, and the carceral state in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Her dissertation, tentatively titled “‘Go home to my people’: Race, Community, and Freedom in the Texas Penal System, 1865-1912,” explores how Black, Indigenous, Mexican, and poor white folks increasingly came into contact with the Texas penal system after the Civil War. Focusing on the experiences of Texas residents in relation to policing, courts, and state punishment, she examines how the penal system shaped meanings and contours of freedom, citizenship, and community across the state. 

Halee's research has been supported by the Briscoe Center for American History, Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Texas State Historical Association, and others. She received her B.A. from Vanderbilt University in History and Political Science in 2019.