Jennie Sekanics is an English Ph.D. scholar and TA for Foundations of English at the University of Iowa, where she studies twentieth and twenty first century fiction, feminist theory, and trauma studies. She is interested in the relationship between trauma, narrative form, agency, and the body. She researches depictions of sexual violence and female/queer bodily autonomy in fiction written by or about women and uses intersectionality to demonstrate not only how traumatic experiences cannot be extricated from systems of oppression but also how the potential of language, healing, and agency are impacted by cultural perceptions and expectations.

 Before joining the University of Iowa’s English Department, Jennie earned her M.A. 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 at TCNJ, and taught courses on trauma studies, literary theory, and feminist studies.