Map
Position Type 
Faculty
Service 
2010 - Present
All Affiliations 
Women's & Gender StudiesBiology
Specialization 
feminist studies of science, technology, and health; intersections of gender, race, nation, class, and sexuality; feminism and biology

Overview

Biography 

Dr. Clare Jen holds a joint appointment in the Women's and Gender Studies Program and the Department of Biology at Denison University. She previously served as elected co-chair of the Science & Technology Taskforce of the National Women's Studies Association (NWSA), and as a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Women's Studies at University of Maryland-College Park.

The interdisciplinarity of her work is of relevance to women’s and gender studies, critical race and ethnic studies (specifically Asian American Studies), and feminist studies of science, technology, and health. Methodologically, she qualitatively analyzes visual and written texts—primarily news media, popular science and health media, and government and academic publications—as representational and constitutive of phenomena.

Besides teaching the introductory course and advising senior research in women's and gender studies, she teaches feminist methodologies, feminist “practices” in the biological sciences, and feminist studies of science, technology and society. In the Department of Biology, she teaches an introductory biology course, with a weekly laboratory component, that couples and melds the epistemologies, methodologies, and methods of both disciplines.

Degree(s) 
Ph.D. in Women's Studies, University of Maryland-College Park; M.A. in Women's Studies, University of Maryland-College Park; B.S. in Biology and Women's Studies, Duke University

Learning & Teaching

Courses 

BIOL110/WGST110 Biology and Politics of Women's Health

WGST110/QS290 Issues in Feminism

WGST290 Feminist Science Studies

WGST310 Feminist Research Methods

WGST350/QS268 Feminist Health Politics

WGST451/INTD451 Senior Research

AC101 Advising Circle

Research

Overview 
Gender, race, nation, and sexuality in public health discourses — She is an assistant professor in the Women’s Studies Program and the Department of Biology at Denison University. Her areas of research include critical race and gender studies, feminist studies of science and health, and media studies. In particular, she is interested in the formations of gender, race, nation, and sexuality in public health discourses. With respect to feminist science studies, she works with feminist science methodologies, laboratory practices, and activisms.

Works

Publications 

Articles and Book Chapters (Peer-Reviewed):

Jen, Clare. (forthcoming, expected 2016) “Feminist Hacktivisms: Countering Technophilia and Fictional Promises.” Chapter in Introduction to Women’s Studies: A Reader, eds. L. Ayu Saraswati, Barbara Shaw, and Heather Rellihan. Oxford University Press.

Jen, Clare. 2015. “Do-It-Yourself Biology, Garage Biology, and Kitchen Science: A Feminist Analysis of Bio-Making Narratives.” Chapter in Knowing New Biotechnologies: Social Aspects of Technological Convergence, eds. Eugenia Rodrigues and Matthias Wienroth, 125-141. The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Genomics Network Series. Routledge: New York.

Jen, Clare. 2014. “Feminist Technoscience Activism: A Double-Stranded Reading of Dr. Bodnar’s Ig Nobel Striptease.” Rhizomes: Cultural Studies in Emerging Knowledge, Issue 26. http://www.rhizomes.net/issue26/jen.html

Jen, Clare. 2013. “How to Survive Contagion, Disease and Disaster: ‘Masked Asian/American Woman’ as Low-Tech Specter of Emergency Preparedness.” Feminist Formations 25, no. 2:107-128.

Jen, Clare. 2013/2011. “The Possibilities of Asian American Citizenship: A Critical Race and Gender Analysis.” Ethnic Studies Review 34, nos. 1&2:157-183.

Book Review:

Jen, Clare. 2015. Book Review. Review of Ghost Stories for Darwin: The Science of Variation and the Politics of Diversity, by Banu Subramaniam. Asian Biotechnology Development Review 17, no. 1:63-68.

Service

Professional Memberships 

National Women's Studies Association (NWSA)

Society for Social Studies of Science (4S)

The Association for Feminist Epistemologies, Methodologies, Metaphysics and Science Studies (FEMMSS)

Other

Honors & Awards 

Doctoral Graduate Award, American Association of University Women (AAUW)-College Park, MD, 2009.

Dissertation Fellowship, Consortium for Race, Gender and Ethnicity, University of Maryland College Park, 2007-2008.

Evie Beck Research Prize Award, Department of Women’s Studies, University of Maryland-College Park, 2006.

Student Collaborations 

Faculty Advisor to Senior Student Research

Rachel Auerbach, “Ecuadoran Women Rose Workers: A Feminist Analysis of Consent, Labor, and Chemical Exposure” (2015-16, WGST/ENVS)

Shakia Asamoah, “Pinked Consciousness: The Ribbon Movement and Breast Cancer” (2013-14, WGST)

Loan Nguyen, “Strong Women, Small Businesses” (2013-14, WGST/ANSO, co-advised with Dr. Anita Waters)

Gabriel Cunine, “The Pregnant Boy” (Spring 2014, WGST)

Marissa Lease, “Facebook vs. Fakebook: The Digital Formation of Teenage Girldom” (2012-13, WGST)

Elise Schultz, “Plant(hood) Matters: Epistemology of Plant Sex/Gender Dimorphism” (2011-12, WGST, co-advised with Dr. Andrew McCall)

Eva Rediker, “Evolution and Sex: A Feminist Analysis of Behavior in the Animal Kingdom and its Social Construction in the Popular Press” (2011-12, WGST)

Donyea Moore, “The Science of 'Good Skin': A Feminist Analysis of 'Beauty,' Identity, and 'Health' in Biomedical and Popular Media Discourses” (Spring 2011, WGST)