Get to know Jennie

Jennie Sekanics is a U.S. literature and culture scholar specializing in the environmental humanities. Her dissertation, “Pyromodernity: Media and Modernisms of Fire,” argues that fire figures the politics of modern and postmodern aesthetics in U.S. media. She demonstrates how different forms of fire shape American identity and conceptions of “modernity" over the long twentieth century. She is a recipient of the AAUW American Doctoral Fellowship for the 2026-2027 year.

Jennie has earned various awards and accolades for her teaching, including UI’s Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, and her research and writing have been supported by the Modern Language Association, Modernist Studies Association, the University of Virginia, and the American Association of University Women. 

Before joining the University of Iowa’s English Department, Jennie earned her MA in English and graduate certificate in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from The College of New Jersey (TCNJ). She served as a faculty member in the English, Writing, and Liberal Learning departments and taught courses on American media, literary theory, and feminist studies.