Deborah Jenson | Scholars@Duke

Deborah Jenson
Professor of Romance Studies

I am a scholar of "long 19th century" in French and Caribbean literature and culture, cognitive literary studies, health humanities, and global health. Running through all my research, teaching, and outreach is the problem of representation and mimesis, on axes from social contagion to rhetoric to mirror neurons. Here are some ways to think about my work:

Research: articles on Sylvia Wynter and Global South Philosophy in PMLA, "Creole" poetry by Marceline Desbordes-Valmore (Cahiers Marceline Desbordes-Valmore), and a co-authored study on qualitative representations of epilepsy in Epilepsy and Behavior. Forthcoming work on Haitian psychiatrist Louis Mars in Black Psychology, and a co-edited research topic with Marco Iacoboni and Len White on Representation in Neuroscience and Humanities in Frontiers. Monographs, edited volumes, editions, and translations include: Beyond the Slave Narrative: Politics, Sex, and Manuscripts in the Haitian Revolution; Trauma and Its Representations: The Social Life of Mimesis in Post-Revolutionary France; Poetry of Haitian Independence (with D. Kadish and N. Shapiro); Unconscious Dominions: Psychoanalysis, Colonial Trauma, and Global Sovereignty (with W. Anderson and R. Keller); Sarah, A Colonial Novella (with D. Kadish); and "Coming to Writing" and Other Essays by Hélène Cixous.
Public humanities: co-founder and co-director of the Haiti Lab (2010-2013), founder and co-director of the Health Humanities Lab (2015-2020), and co-founder and co-director of the Neurohumanities Research Group (2013-) at the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences.
Pedagogy: my teaching builds on the interdisciplinary nature of my work, from "Flaubert's Brain: Neurohumanities," "Pandemic Humanities: Reimagining Health and Medicine in Romance Studies," and "Trauma and Global Health," to "Mimesis in Theory and Practice," "Global Humanities in French," and "Sylvia Wynter, Frantz Fanon, and Caribbean Philosophy Writ Large."
Administrative leadership: from directing the Franklin Humanities Institute, the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and co-directing the Brain & Society theme of Bass Connections, to P.I.ship of grants including the Mellon "Humanities Futures" grant at FHI, and co P.I.ship with Ed Balleisen of the NEH Next Generation "Versatile Humanists" grant.
For a profile of one of my remarkable undergraduate students in French, see this feature on Marshall Scholar Julie Uchitel: https://today.duke.edu/2022/05/duke-alumna-awarded-knight-hennessy-scholarship.

Office Hours

Tuesday1:30-4 pm or by appointment

Current Appointments & Affiliations

Professor of Romance Studies, Romance Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2009
Research Professor of Global Health, Duke Global Health Institute, University Institutes and Centers 2013
Faculty Network Member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, University Institutes and Centers 2009
Associate of the Duke Initiative for Science & Society, Duke Science & Society, Initiatives 2018

Contact Information

112 Language Center, Box 90257, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708
205 Language Center, Box 90257, Durham, NC 27708-0257
deborah.jenson@duke.edu

Background
Education, Training, & Certifications
- Ph.D., Harvard University 1994
- M.A., University of Paris (France) 1985
- B.A., Bowdoin College 1983
Previous Appointments & Affiliations
- Director of the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute, John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute, University Institutes and Centers 2015 - 2017
- Co-Director of Undergraduate Studies of French, Romance Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2011
Leadership & Clinical Positions at Duke
- Director, Franklin Humanities Institute, 2015-2018
  Co-Director, Brain & Society Theme of Bass Connections, 2012-2016
  Director, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, 2012-2014
  Founding Co-Director, Health Humanities Lab, 2016-2020
  Co-Director, Haiti Lab, 2010-2013
Academic Positions Outside Duke
- Director, Center for the Humanities, University of Wisconsin-Madison. 2007 - 2008
- Professor of French and Italian, University of Wisconsin-Madison. 2002 - 2008
Recognition
In the News
- JUN 25, 2020 Duke Government Relations
  
  Duke's Discussion of Health Care and the Humanities During the Pandemic Heads to Capitol Hill
- APR 25, 2017
  
  New FHI Lab Meshes Humanities and Health to Improve Patient Experiences
- AUG 9, 2016
  
  New Program To Expand Career Opportunities for Ph.D Students
- JAN 28, 2016
  
  Jennifer Pinckney, Charleston Church Shooting Survivor, to Speak at Duke
- JAN 28, 2016 Duke Today
  
  Jennifer Pinckney, Charleston Church Shooting Survivor, to Speak at Duke
- SEP 15, 2015
  
  Using Humanities to Improve Healthcare
- SEP 15, 2015 Duke Today
  
  Using Humanities to Improve Healthcare
- APR 8, 2015
  
  Mellon Grant Supports Exploration of Global Health Humanities
- FEB 25, 2015
  
  Deborah Jenson to Direct Franklin Humanities Institute
- FEB 25, 2015 Duke Today
  
  Deborah Jenson to Direct Franklin Humanities Institute
- JAN 6, 2015
  
  News Tip: Haiti Rebuilds Slowly, Education Initiatives Offer Hope Five Years After Earthquake, Duke Experts Say
- JAN 6, 2015 Duke Today
  
  News Tip: Haiti Rebuilds Slowly, Education Initiatives Offer Hope Five Years After Earthquake, Duke Experts Say
- JAN 22, 2014
  
  Duke Unveils Own Copy of Haitian Declaration of Independence
- JAN 22, 2014 Duke Today
  
  Duke Unveils Own Copy of Haitian Declaration of Independence
- NOV 12, 2013
  
  Duke Neurohumanities in Paris
- NOV 12, 2013 Duke Today
  
  Duke Neurohumanities in Paris
- AUG 12, 2013
  
  Haiti Cholera Finding Shows Need for Ethics, Responsibility
- JUL 2, 2013
  
  Movin' Out: Duke's First Humanities Labs Close Up Shop
Expertise
Global Scholarship
- Expertise
  - France (Country)
  - Haiti (Country)
- Research
  - France (Country)
  - Haiti (Country)
- Teaching
  - France (Country)
  - Haiti (Country)
Research
Fellowships, Supported Research, & Other Grants
- Reckoning with Race, Racism, and the History of the American South Initiative: Unearthing Duke Forest awarded by Duke Office of the Provost 2021
Publications & Artistic Works
Selected Publications
- Books
  - Kadish, D., D. Jenson, and T. B. N. Shapiro. Poetry of the Haitian Independence. Translated by N. Shapiro. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2015.
    Link to Item
  - Kadish, D., D. Jenson, and T. B. N. Shapiro. Poetry of the Haitian Independence. Translated by N. Shapiro. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2015.
    Link to Item
  - Anderson, Deborah Jenson with Warwick, and Richard E. Keller. Unconscious Dominions: Psychoanalysis, Colonial Trauma, and Global Sovereignties. Duke University Press, 2011.
  - Jenson, D. Beyond the Slave Narrative: Sex, Politics, and Manuscripts in the Haitian Revolution. Liverpool University Press, 2011.
    Link to Item
  - Jenson, Deborah, Warwick Anderson, and Richard E. Keller. Globalizing the Unconscious, 2011.
  - Jenson, D., and D. Kadish. Sarah, The Original French Text, 2008.
  - Jenson, D., and D. Kadish. Sarah, The Original French Text, 2008.
  - Jenson, Deborah, and Doris Kadish. Sarah, An English Translation. MLA Editions, 2008.
  - Jenson, Deborah, and Doris Kadish. Sarah, An English Translation. MLA Editions, 2008.
  - Jenson, Deborah. Trauma and Its Representations: The Social Life of Mimesis in Post-Revolutionary France. Johns Hopkins UP, 2001.
  - Cixous, H. "Coming to Writing" and Other Essays by Hélène Cixous. Edited by D. Jenson. Translated by D. Jenson, S. Cornell, A. Liddle, and S. Sellers. Harvard University Press, 1992.
    Link to Item
  - Cixous, H. "Coming to Writing" and Other Essays by Hélène Cixous. Edited by D. Jenson. Translated by D. Jenson, S. Cornell, A. Liddle, and S. Sellers. Harvard University Press, 1992.
    Link to Item
- Academic Articles
  - Iacoboni, Marco, Deborah Jenson, Julie Uchitel, and Leonard E. White. “Editorial: Representation in neuroscience and humanities.” Front Integr Neurosci 16 (2022): 1035367. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2022.1035367.
    Full Text Link to Item
  - Jenson, D. “Ceremonies Lost and Found: Global South Critical Philosophy against Cognitive Exceptionalism.” Pmla/Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 137, no. 1 (2022): 136–43. https://doi.org/10.1632/S0030812921000894.
    Full Text Link to Item
  - Jenson, Deborah. “Maroon nation: a history of revolutionary Haiti.” The Historian 83, no. 2 (April 3, 2021): 210–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/00182370.2021.1965429.
    Full Text
  - Uchitel, Julie, Charles McDade, Marika Mathew, Sneha Mantri, Deborah Jenson, and Aatif M. Husain. “Conversational analysis of consciousness during seizures.” Epilepsy Behav 112 (November 2020): 107486. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2020.107486.
    Full Text Link to Item
  - Jenson, Deborah. “Marceline Desbordes-Valmore créolisée et créolisatrice. Décolonisation et préciosité dans « Chanson créole » (1819).” Edited by Christine Planté and Pierre Loubier. Cahiers Marceline Desbordes Valmore, 2020.
  - Jenson, Deborah. “Authoring Autism: On Rhetoric and Neurological Queerness.” American Literature 92, no. 1 (2020): 183–85.
    Link to Item
  - Jenson, Deborah. “See It Feelingly: Classic Novels, Autistic Readers, and the Schooling of a No-Good English Professor.” American Literature 92, no. 1 (2020): 183–85.
    Link to Item
  - Jenson, Deborah. “Living by Metaphor in the Haitian Revolution: Tigers and Cognitive Theory,” 2016.
    Open Access Copy
  - Jenson, D. “Sources and interpretations jean-jacques dessalines and the African character of the haitian revolution.” William and Mary Quarterly 69, no. 3 (July 1, 2012): 615–38. https://doi.org/10.5309/willmaryquar.69.3.0615.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Crichlow, R. L., R. L. Northover, and R. L. Jenson. “Introduction: Caribbean Entanglements in Times of Crises.” The Global South 6, no. 1 (2012): 1–1. https://doi.org/10.2979/globalsouth.6.1.1.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Jenson, Deborah, and Laurent Dubois. “Humanities in the Lab: Rethinking Haitian Studies.” Diversity and Democracy: Civic Learning for Shared Futures 15 (2012).
  - Jenson, Deborah. “States of Ghetto, Ghettos of States: Haiti and the ‘Era de Francia’ in the Dominican Republic, 1804-1808.” The Global South 106 (2012): 156–71.
    Open Access Copy
  - Jenson, Fredric. “<em>Haiti Unbound: A Spiralist Challenge to the Postcolonial Canon</em>, by Kamaia L. Glover.” Research in African Literatures 43, no. 3 (2012): 135–135. https://doi.org/10.2979/reseafrilite.43.3.135.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Jenson, D. “Kidnapped Narratives: Mobility without Autonomy and the Nation/Novel Analogy,” November 25, 2011, 369–86. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444342789.ch23.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Jenson, Deborah, Victoria Szabo, and Victoria Duke FHI Haiti Humanities Laboratory Student Research Team. “Cholera in Haiti and other Caribbean regions, 19th century.” Emerging Infectious Diseases 17, no. 11 (November 2011): 2130–35. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid1711.110958.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Jenson, Deborah, and Marco Iacoboni. “Literary Biomimesis: Mirror Neurons and the Ontological Priority of Representation.” California Italian Studies, 2011.
    Open Access Copy
  - Jenson, Deborah. “Colonialism, Race, and the French Romantic Imagination.” Interventions International Journal of Postcolonial Studies 13, no. 2 (January 1, 2011): 328–30.
    Link to Item
  - Jenson, Deborah. “Dessalines’s American Proclamations of the Haitian Independence.” The Journal of Haitian Studies Vol. 15 (2010): 72–102.
    Open Access Copy
  - Jenson, Deborah. “The Common Without Copies, the International Without Cosmopolitanism: Marx Against the Romanticism of Likeness.” Rethinking Marxism 22 (2010): 420–33.
    Open Access Copy
  - Jenson, Deborah. “Hegel and Dessalines: Philosophy and the African Diaspora.” New West Indian Guide 84 (2010): 4–9.
    Open Access Copy
  - Jenson, Deborah. “Hegel and Dessalines: Philosophy and the African Diaspora.” New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West Indische Gids 84, no. 3–4 (January 1, 2010): 269–75. https://doi.org/10.1163/13822373-90002443.
    Full Text
  - Jenson, D. “Myth, history, and witnessing in Marceline Desbordes-Valmore's Caribbean poetics.” Esprit Createur 47, no. 4 (January 1, 2007): 81–92. https://doi.org/10.1353/esp.2007.0066.
    Full Text
  - Jenson, Deborah. “Myth, History, and Witnessing in Marceline Desbordes-Valmore’s Caribbean Poetics,” 2007.
    Open Access Copy
  - Jenson, Deborah. “Before Malcolm X, Dessalines: A ‘French’ Tradition of Black Atlantic Radicalism,” 2007.
    Open Access Copy
  - Jenson, D. “The persons and things school: Parrots, peasants, and pariahs in "Un Coeur simple" and la Chaumière indienne.” Differences 17, no. 3 (December 1, 2006): 107–25. https://doi.org/10.1215/10407391-2006-014.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Jenson, Deborah. “Mimetic Mastery and Colonial Mimicry In the First Franco-Antillean Creole Anthology.” The Yale Journal of Criticism 17, no. 1 (2004): 83–106. https://doi.org/10.1353/yale.2004.0004.
    Full Text
  - Jenson, D. “Louise Ackermann's Monstrous Nature.” Symposium 53, no. 4 (2000): 234–47.
    Open Access Copy
- Book Sections
  - Jenson, D. “Toussaint Louverture, genio 'cimarrôn' y multimodial.” In Toussaint Louverture: Repensar Un Icono, edited by M. Past and N. M. Léger, 217–30. Santiago de Cuba: Casa del Caribe, 2015.
  - Jenson, Deborah, and Lesley Curtis. “The Haitian Revolution.” In The Encyclopedia of Race and Racism, edited by Patrick Mason, 2:277–84. Gale, 2013.
  - Jenson, Deborah. “Placing Haiti in Geopsychoanalytic Space: Toward a Postcolonial Concept of Traumatic Mimesis.” In Unconscious Dominions: Psychoanalysis, Trauma, and Sovereignty, 2011.
  - Jenson, Deborah. “Surrealism and the Avant Garde Novel, and The Decadent Novel.” In The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the Novel, 2011.
  - Jenson, D. “Francophone World Literature (Littérature-monde), Cosmopolitanism and Decadence: 'Citizen of the World' without the Citizen?” In Transnational French Studies : Postcolonialism and Littérature-Monde, edited by A. Hargreaves, C. Forsdick, and D. Murphy, 1:15–35. Liverpool, UK: Liverpool University Press, 2010.
  - Jenson, Deborah. “The Writing of Disaster in Haiti: Signifying Cataclysm from Slave Revolution to Earth Quake.” In Haiti Rising, edited by Martin Munro, 103–12. Liverpool University Press, 2010.
  - Jenson, Deborah. “Francophone World Literature (Littérature-monde) Cosmopolitanism, and Decadence: ‘Citizen of the World’ without the Citizen?” In Transnational French Studies: Postcolonialism and Littérature-Monde, edited by Alec Hargreaves, 15–35. Liverpool University Press, 2010.
  - Jenson, Deborah. “Mirror Revolutions: Ourika and Saint-Domingue.” In "Approaches to Teaching Claire de Duras’s ‘Ourika,’” Ed. Mary Ellen Birkett and Christopher Rivers (New York: Modern Language Editions, 2009) Pp.45-50, 2009.
  - Miller, Deborah Jenson with Christopher L. “Historical Timeline.” In Approaches to Teaching Claire de Duras’s ‘Ourika,’” Ed. Mary Ellen Birkett and Christopher Rivers (New York: Modern Language Editions, MLA Editions, 2009) Pp.12-17, 2009.
  - Jenson, Deborah. “Toussaint Louverture, Spin Doctor? Launching the Haitian Revolution in the French Media.” In Tree of Liberty: Legacies of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World, 41–62. University of Virginia Press, 2008.
  - Jenson, Deborah. “Fétichisme de la marchandise: la poésie des courtisanes noires ou de couleur à Saint-Domingue.” In Relire l’histoire et La Littérature Haïtiennes, edited by Christiane Ndiaye, 27–56. Presses nationales d’Haïti, 2007.
- Other Articles
  - Jenson, D., and L. Dubois. “Haiti Can Be Rich Again.” New York Times, January 8, 2012.
  - Jenson, D. “From the Kidnapping(s) of the Louvertures to the Alleged Kidnapping of Aristide: Legacies of Slavery in the Post/Colonial World.” Yale French Studies. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005.
    Link to Item
  - Jenson, Deborah. “The Haiti Issue.” Yale French Studies, 2005.
- Journal Issues
  - Jenson, D., D. Desormeaux, C. Bongie, D. Kadish, and N. F. Nesbitt. “The Haiti Issue: 1804 and Nineteenth-Century French Studies.” Edited by D. Jenson. Yale French Studies. Yale UP, 2005.
    Link to Item
  - Jenson, D., D. Desormeaux, C. Bongie, D. Kadish, and N. F. Nesbitt. “The Haiti Issue: 1804 and Nineteenth-Century French Studies.” Edited by D. Jenson. Yale French Studies. Yale UP, 2005.
    Link to Item
- Datasets
  - Szabo, V., D. Jenson, E. Cloninger, P. Corbett, M. Hoyle, J. Ivker, E. Jernigan, et al. “19th-Century Caribbean Cholera Timemap,” 2011.
    Link to Item
Exhibitions, Screenings, & Performances
- (In)Visible Organ | (In)visible Organ: A Mixed Media Exhibit at Rubenstein Arts Center 2019
Artistic Works & Non-Print Media
- Installations
  - Haiti: History Embedded in Amber. Director. 2011
Teaching & Mentoring
Recent Courses
Teaching Activities
- In Fall 2020 I am co-teaching a French doctoral seminar "Contemporary African Philosophy with Prof. Felwine Sarr, and teaching the undergraduate Romance Studies and Global Health course "Pandemic Humanities: Reimagining Medicine and Health in Romance Studies." "Pandemic Humanities" is a Global Health Foundations Course.
Scholarly, Clinical, & Service Activities
Presentations & Appearances
Outreach & Engaged Scholarship
- Bass Connections Team Leader. Integration of Technology and Storytelling to Create a Visual Art Exhibit on Women's Health. 2019 - 2020 2019 - 2020
- Bass Connections Faculty Team Member. Trauma and Timing. August 2013 - May 2014 2013 - 2014
Service to the Profession
Service to Duke
- Bass Connections Theme Leader (Brain & Society). 2013 - 2016 2013 - 2016
- Bass Connections Faculty Advisory Council. 2012 - 2016 2012 - 2016

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Education, Training, & Certifications

Previous Appointments & Affiliations

Leadership & Clinical Positions at Duke

Academic Positions Outside Duke

In the News

Global Scholarship

Expertise

Research

Teaching

Fellowships, Supported Research, & Other Grants

Selected Publications

Books

Academic Articles

Book Sections

Other Articles

Journal Issues

Datasets

Exhibitions, Screenings, & Performances

Artistic Works & Non-Print Media

Installations

Recent Courses

Teaching Activities

Presentations & Appearances

Outreach & Engaged Scholarship

Service to the Profession

Service to Duke