Ashley Towle, PhD

Ashley Towle’s scholarship focuses on the experience of African Americans in the South during the transition from slavery to freedom. She is the author of African Americans, Death, and the New Birth of Freedom: Dying Free during the Civil War and Reconstruction and co-editor of Grave History: Death, Race, and Gender in Southern Cemeteries. Her next book project, tentatively titled “‘Justice for Myself and Children:’ Freedwomen’s Demands for Child Support and Justice from their Former Enslavers,” examines the actions of formerly enslaved women in the post-Civil War South who sought economic support and legal recognition for the children they had with their enslavers while they had been enslaved. Drawing on cases from across the South, the project examines the intimate nature of reconstructing the South and the unique obstacles Black women faced in forging new lives in freedom. During the 2024-2025 academic year, Dr. Towle has been awarded the Trustee Professorship.

At the University of Southern Maine, Dr. Towle teaches classes on the history of the United States, including the history of women, the Civil War and Reconstruction, the history of death and dying, and the history of sexuality. Dr. Towle also serves as the director of Putting History to Work, the history internship program. Students have completed internships at sites such as the Maine Historical Society, the Maine Irish Heritage Center, the Osher Map Library, the Pejepscot History Center, the South Portland Historical Society and Museum, Victoria Mansion, USM’s Franco-American Collection, and USM’s Special Collections.

Currently, Dr. Towle serves as the director of the Women and Gender Studies Program. She enjoys working closely with the tight-knit community of student-scholar-activists and the interdisciplinary faculty on the Women and Gender Studies Council.