Pronouns: she / her / hers
Education
Ph.D., Boston University - English, 2003
M.A., Boston University - English, 1996
B.A., University of California, Santa Barbara - English, 1992
Research Interests
Asian American literary and cultural studies, intersectionality, critical race studies, anti-racist theory and praxis, contemporary American multiethnic literature, critical mixed race studies
The daughter of a refugee father from China and an immigrant mother from Jamaica, whose parents themselves were immigrants from Hong Kong, Jennifer Ho is the director of the Center for Humanities & the Arts and Professor of Ethnic Studies, where she teaches courses on Asian American culture and Critical Race Theory. She is past president of the Association for Asian American Studies (2020-2022) and the author of two co-edited essay collections--Teaching Approaches to Asian North American Literature (MLA Press 2022 w/Jenny Wills), Narrative, Race, and Ethnicity in the United States (Ohio State University Press 2017 w/Jim Donahue & Shaun Morgan)--and three scholarly monographs, Consumption and Identity in Asian American Coming-of-Age Novels (Routledge 2005), Racial Ambiguity in Asian American Culture (Rutgers University Press 2015), which won the South Atlantic Modern Language Association award for best monograph, and Understanding Gish Jen (University of South Carolina Press 2015 and 2022 paperback with new introduction). In addition to her academic work, Ho is active in community engagement around issues of race and intersectionality, leading workshops on anti-racism and how to talk about race in our current political climate. You can also follow her on Twitter @drjenho.
Selected Interviews
AMA Journal of Ethics – Ethics Talk: “Spread of Anti-Asian Racism and Xenophobia During COVID-19 Pandemic” (June 2020)
Brown University – Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, “Racial Ambiguity in Asian American Culture” (January 2018)
Splendid Table “Food plays a crucial role in how I identify as Chinese Jamaican” (March 2015)
WUNC – The State of Things “No F****** Pink Ribbons! Is it Time for the Bow to Go?”(January 2014)
Selected Publications
Books
Teaching Approaches to Asian North American Literature (MLA Press 2022) – co-editor along with Jenny Wills
Narrative, Race, and Ethnicity in the United States. Edited along with James Donahue (SUNY Potsdam) & Shaun Morgan (Tennessee Wesleyan College). Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2017.
Understanding Gish Jen. Columbia, SC: The University of South Carolina Press, 2015.
Racial Ambiguity in Asian American Culture. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2015.
Consumption and Identity in Asian American Coming-of-Age Novels. New York: Routledge Press, 2005.
Selected Articles/Book Chapters
“Anti-Asian Racism, Black Lives Matter, and COVID-19” Japan Forum. 33:1, 148-159 (2021).
“Claiming Dixie?” Oxford American. Spring 2019. 12-15.
“The Accidental Academic or How to Succeed in Academia through Failure and Doubt.” Staging Women’s Lives in Academia, eds. Michelle Masse and Nan Bauer-Maglin. State University of New York Press, 2017. 29-39.
“Identity.” Keywords in Asian American Studies, eds. K. Scott Wong, Linda Vo, and Cathy Schlund-Vials. New York: New York University Press, 2015. 125-127.
In-Progress (single author)
“I Am Not My Breast Cancer: Why I Hate Those F****** Pink Ribbons and Other Observations on My Post-Cancer Life” (book manuscript/memoir).
“Three Continents, Five Countries, One Family: My Chinese Jamaican Family’s Transnational and Transpacific Story” (book manuscript/family biography).
News about Jennifer
Jennifer's Grad Students
