At first, assistant professor Jenn M. Jackson was apprehensive about writing for Teen Vogue.  She’s “not a teen” and has never really been “into” fashion, she said.

But as Teen Vogue continues to stretch beyond its fashion-focused roots, Jackson helps fuel the magazine’s dialogue with historically-based, politically-charged articles that are aimed to inspire younger audiences to engage in conversations about the world around them.

“It would be great if I had read something in a magazine growing up about feminism and misogynoir and lynching,” she said. “A lot of those things I didn’t learn the language around until I was already in my 20s.”

Jackson is a doctoral candidate in the department of political science at the University of Chicago. She recently announced on Twitter that she will be teaching black feminist politics at Syracuse University next year, after never having the opportunity to take an undergraduate course in black feminism, herself.

Rather than a formal education in feminist ideology, Jackson explored these concepts outside the classroom through conversations, online research and by reading books, anthologies and encyclopedias on her own. As a political scientist, Jackson said she’s always looking at history, trends, data and how society has learned — or not learned — from the past.

Jackson will teach black feminist politics in the spring 2020 semester, along with a graduate course in gender and politics. In the fall, she’ll teach introduction to American politics.

“We’ve been hoping to build on strengths that we already have in areas like race and ethnic politics,” said Brian Taylor, chair of the political science department in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He added that Jackson’s expertise in the field made her the perfect candidate.

The black feminist politics course will discuss the intersection of race and gender in ways other classes offered at SU may touch on, but don’t focus on entirely, said Shana Gadarian, an associate professor of political science in Maxwell.

One aspect of political science, Gadarian said, is the study of how power is distributed in society. She said Jackson’s course will offer the opportunity to explore power dynamics in regard to both race and gender.

“(Jackson) is a really dynamic voice on thinking about intersectionality,” Gadarian said. “We’re excited for her to teach all her classes, but particularly this class, since it’s one that we don’t have very much coverage on right now.”

Jackson said she wanted to offer this course during her first year of teaching at SU because her work is centered around the intersections of race, gender, class, ability and sexuality. She wanted to ensure she’d be able to contribute to that culture and dialogue on campus, within her first couple of semesters of being at SU.

The course will focus on both theory and praxis of black feminist work by discussing notable individuals and groups, such as the Combahee River Collective. The Collective contributed heavily to what we know as intersectionality today, Jackson said, with precepts based in their experiences as black, queer, working-class and poor women in Boston during the 1970s.

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For Jackson, it’s important that the course doesn’t only analyze the theoretical and mainstream ideas about feminism. While the class will discuss influential feminists like bell hooks, Barbara Smith and Audre Lorde, Jackson aims to engage students with more radical ideas and less-acknowledged aspects of black feminist ideas and critique.

Beyond knowing the names of historical figures and what they have accomplished, Jackson said she hopes the course helps students start thinking about themselves and the ways that they’re situated toward power differently.

“My hope is that when people come into this classroom, that they’re challenged in constructive ways,” she said. “But most importantly, that they actually want to apply it.”

Jackson’s work as a scholar and educator is closely tethered to her activism, which she said is critical to everything she does. For her, it’s important for scholars to see how they can bring their ideas outside of the classroom in light of what’s happening in the country today.

“There are a lot of conversations that we are having as scholars at the margins and sometimes they don’t ever leave the ivory tower,” she said. These ideas and resources being discussed in academia, she added, should be reaching the communities that are most affected by current political issues.

Jackson also hopes the course makes these concepts accessible to the entire student body. When classes related to race or gender are added to the curriculum, she said, there may be a connotation that they only apply to certain people. Jackson encourages people who may feel like these conversations don’t directly pertain to them to enroll, as they are actually who should be in the room.

“We should be concerned with the world around us and with shaping our world view with as many perspectives as possible,” she said. “So I would encourage folks to really open their minds up and think about what this could be in terms of how they might look at the world differently.”

Published on February 19, 2019 at 10:31 pm

Contact Haley: hrober03@syr.edu