Dr. Joanne Klein holds a Ph.D. in History from Rice University (1992) and an M.A. in Comparative History from Brandeis University (1988). After teaching at the University of South Carolina and Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, she joined the faculty at Boise State University in 2001. While most of her teaching focuses on European history, Dr. Klein also specializes in the Middle East and North Africa, and has taught a seminar and workshops on Women in Middle Eastern History.

Much of Dr. Klein's research has explored the history of British police forces in the early 20th century. Her book, "Invisible Men: the Secret Lives of Police Constables in Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham, 1900-1939", was published by Liverpool University Press in 2010, and was featured at a book session at the European Social Science History Conference at the University of Glasgow in Scotland on April 11, 2012. She is active in the Criminal Justice/Legal History network of the Social Science History Association, where she has served as network chair for four years and manages the network’s web page.
In addition to her work on policing, she is engaged in the project, “Inscribed in Stone: A Study of Grave Stones in God’s Acre, Winston-Salem, NC", with funding from an Idaho Humanities Council Research Fellowship grant. She has presented papers at SSHA conferences as well as at the European Social Science History Conference, the Carleton Conference on the History of the Family, the International Congress of Historical Sciences, the Social History Society of the United Kingdom, and various regional conferences.