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Jennifer Christine Nash

Jean Fox O'Barr Women's Studies Distinguished Professor
Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies

Overview


Jennifer C. Nash is the Jean Fox O'Barr Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke University.  She is currently the Margaret Taylor Smith Director of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, as well as the Director of the Black Feminist Theory Summer Institute.

She earned her PhD in African American Studies at Harvard University and her JD at Harvard Law School.  Her research interests include black feminist theory; race, gender, and law; intersectionality; black maternal health; and visual culture.

She is the author of four books (all published on Duke University Press):

She is also the editor of Gender: Love (Macmillan, 2016), and a co-editor (with Samantha Pinto) of The Routledge Companion to Intersectionalities (Routledge, 2023).  She co-edits (with Samantha Pinto) the Black Feminism on the Edge book series on Duke University Press. She is the Editorial Director of Feminist Studies.

She has published articles in scholarly journals including Signs, Feminist Studies, Feminist TheorySocial Text, Theory and Event, differencesFrontiersAmerican Quarterly, and diacritics, and in venues including The CutMs.Boston Review, and Lit Hub.   

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Jean Fox O'Barr Women's Studies Distinguished Professor · 2022 - Present Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Professor of Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies · 2020 - Present Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Margaret Taylor Smith Director of the Program in Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies · 2023 - Present Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Professor of African & African American Studies · 2026 - Present African & African American Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

In the News


Published September 12, 2024
New Books by Duke Authors: Exploring Politics, Theology, AI and Basketball
Published August 11, 2024
A Black Feminist Voice on Loss
Published August 5, 2024
Search Committee Named for Next Social Science Research Institute Director

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Recent Publications


:Lethal Intersections: Race, Gender, and Violence

Journal Article Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society · March 1, 2025 Full text Cite

On Exhaustion: Toward a Post-Care Feminism

Journal Article Differences · January 1, 2025 Full text Cite

Black Feminist Self-Help: Or, Notes on the Genres of Contemporary Black Feminist Political Life

Journal Article Signs · March 1, 2024 This article turns attention to the contemporary Black feminist trade book, which I argue introduces a new, highly visible, and highly profitable genre: Black feminist self-help. This article thinks critically about Black feminist self-help, tracking the e ... Full text Cite
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Education, Training & Certifications


Harvard University · 2009 Ph.D.