Doctoral Candidate in History and Women and Gender Studies
she/her/hers
About
Rachael Barrett is a PhD candidate in History and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Michigan, where she studies gender in twentieth-century Europe, particularly France. Her dissertation analyzes how gender norms, religion, class, colonization, and political upheaval shaped girls’ social organizing in France and Algeria between the 1930s and the 1950s, through the lens of girl scouting. She received a Fulbright fellowship to conduct dissertation research in France in the 2025-2026 academic year. Her work has been published in the Journal of Women’s History.
Rachael is committed to expanding history education outside of traditional school settings, particularly in museums and archives. Before coming to Michigan, she earned an MA in Museum Studies at Tufts University. She has worked at the Massachusetts Historical Society and in the Denison University archives. In Fall 2026, she will intern at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, sponsored by a Rackham Doctoral Intern Fellowship at Michigan.
