Biography and expertise
Jessica R. Pliley is a Professor of Women’s and Gender History at Texas State University and holds a Ph.D. from the Ohio State University. She is the author of Policing Sexuality: The Mann Act and the Making of the FBI (Harvard, 2014) and the co-editor of Fighting Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking: History and Contemporary Policy (Cambridge, 2021) and Global Anti-Vice Activism (Cambridge, 2016). Her work has appeared in the Journal of Women’s History, the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, and the Journal of the History of Sexuality and several anthologies. Her current research explores the long history of anti-trafficking movement from the late nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century.
Education
Doctorate Degree
PhD in History
The Ohio State Univ Main Campus, 2010
Master's Degree
MA in History
The Ohio State Univ Main Campus, 2006
Bachelor's Degree
BA in History
Metropolitan State Coll of Denver, 2003
Featured grants
- Pliley, Jessica (Co-Principal), Valencia, Louie Dean (Co-Principal). Library Online Resource Grant to purchase Sex and Sexuality Research from the Kinsey Institute database, Alkek Library, Texas State University, $41925. (Funded: 2020). Grant.
- Pliley, Jessica R. Library Online Research Grant for Women’s Magazine Archive, Collection 1., Texas State University, $2773. (Funded: August 2023 - Present). Grant.
- Pliley, Jessica R (Principal). Research Enhancement Program Grant, Texas State University, Institutional (Higher Ed), $8000. (Submitted: October 2022, Funded: May 2023 - May 2024). Grant.
- Pliley, Jessica R (Supporting). Grants to Sustain and Advance the Work of Historical Organizations Program, American Historical Association, Private / Foundation / Corporate, $11850. (Submitted: 2022, Funded: 2022 - 2023). Grant.
- Pliley, Jessica R (Principal). Research Enhancement Grant, Texas State University, Institutional (Higher Ed), $8000. (Submitted: 2016, Funded: 2017). Grant.
Featured scholarly/creative works
- Pliley, J. R., & Mckiernan, J. R. (Eds.). (n.d.). Capturing Labor: Unfree Work in the Southwest. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
- Pliley, J. R. (2024). Federal Crimes and Policing in the Early-Twentieth Century. In The Routledge History of Crime in America (pp. 349–362). New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003300151
- Pliley, J. R. (2024). Gender and Enslavement: The Global Anti-Trafficking Movement, 1885-1949. In A Cultural History of Slavery and Human Trafficking in the Age of Global Conflict: Volume 5: Global Conflict, Colonialism, and Decolonization, 1900-1945 (pp. 115–134). London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic.
- Pliley, J. R. (2024). Perpetual Banishment: The Transcarceral Crimmigration Case of Mary Masako Akimoto. Gender & History, 36(2). https://doi.org/DOI:%2010.1111/1468-0424.12791
- Pliley, J. R., LeBaron, G., & Blight, D. (Eds.). (2021). Fighting Modern Day Slavery and Human Trafficking: History and Contemporary Policy. New York: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/fighting-modern-slavery-and-human-trafficking/2FBEBA3D01169D34B37BC4DCAB36BB0E
Featured awards
- Award / Honor Recipient: Presidential Distinction Award for Excellence in Teaching, College of Liberal Arts. March 12, 2025 - Present
- Award / Honor Recipient: Ingram Family Endowed Professor in History, History Department. August 2025 - July 2028
- Award / Honor Recipient: Presidential Distinction Award for Excellence in Service, College of Liberal Arts. 2024
- Award / Honor Recipient: Presidential Distinction for Excellence in Service, College of Liberal Arts. 2023
- Award / Honor Recipient: Presidential Distinction Award for Excellence in Teaching, College of Liberal Arts, Texas State University. 2022
Featured service activities
- Speaker
First Tuesday Film Series - Price Center
- Other
Caldwell Hays Examiner
- Chair
Curriculum & Course Schedule Committee
- Member
University Curriculum Committee
- Other
Berkshire’s Conference for the History of Women, Genders, and Sexualities
- University Mentor
Dr. Courtney Cook