Deborah Jenson
Professor of Romance Studies
A scholar of "long 19th century" French and Caribbean literature and culture, I also work in the fields of cognitive literary studies and health humanities. 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
. A co-authored book on Trauma and Humanitarian Emergency in Haiti is under contract, and a monograph project, The Making and Unmaking of the Brain as Episteme in French and Caribbean Modernity,
is in process. I have previously served as the director of the Franklin Humanities Institute and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. A co-director of the Health Humanities Lab, my recent courses have included "Storytelling in Medicine and Health," and "Flaubert's Brain: Neurohumanities."
Office Hours
Monday 12-2 pm, 112 Language Center, or by appointment
Current Appointments & Affiliations
- Professor of Romance Studies, Romance Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2009
- 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
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deborah.jenson@duke.edu
(919) 660-3122
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http://www.fhi.duke.edu/labs/haiti-lab
- Background
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Education, Training, & Certifications
- Ph.D., Harvard University 1994
- M.A., University of Paris (France) 1985
- B.A., Bowdoin College 1983
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Duke Appointment History
- Research Professor of Global Health, Duke Global Health Institute, University Institutes and Centers 2013 - 2018
- 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
- Recognition
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In the News
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APR 25, 2017 -
AUG 9, 2016 -
JAN 28, 2016 -
SEP 15, 2015 -
APR 8, 2015 -
FEB 25, 2015 -
JAN 6, 2015 -
JAN 22, 2014 -
NOV 12, 2013 -
AUG 12, 2013 -
JUL 2, 2013
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- Expertise
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Global Scholarship
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Expertise
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Research
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Teaching
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- Publications & Artistic Works
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Selected Publications
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Books
- Kadish, D, Jenson, D, and Shapiro, TBN. Poetry of the Haitian Independence. Translated by N Shapiro. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2015. (Edited Book) Link to Item
- Kadish, D, Jenson, D, and Shapiro, TBN. Poetry of the Haitian Independence. Translated by N Shapiro. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2015. (Edited Book) Link to Item
- Anderson, DJWW, and Keller, RE. Unconscious Dominions: Psychoanalysis, Colonial Trauma, and Global Sovereignties. Duke University Press, 2011.
- Jenson, D, Anderson, W, and Keller, RE. Globalizing the Unconscious. 2011.
- Jenson, D. Beyond the Slave Narrative: Sex, Politics, and Manuscripts in the Haitian Revolution. Liverpool University Press, 2011. (Monograph) Link to Item
- Jenson, D, and Kadish, D. Sarah, An English Translation. MLA Editions, 2008.
- Jenson, D, and Kadish, D. Sarah, An English Translation. MLA Editions, 2008.
- Jenson, D, and Kadish, D. Sarah, The Original French Text. 2008. (Edited Book)
- Jenson, D, and Kadish, D. Sarah, The Original French Text. 2008. (Edited Book)
- Jenson, D. 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. (Edited Book) 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. (Edited Book) Link to Item
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Book Sections
- Jenson, D. "Toussaint Louverture, genio 'cimarrôn' y multimodial." In Toussaint Louverture: repensar un icono, edited by M Past and NM Léger, 217-230. Santiago de Cuba: Casa del Caribe, 2015. (Chapter)
- Jenson, D, and Curtis, L. "The Haitian Revolution." In The Encyclopedia of Race and Racism, edited by P Mason, 277-284. Gale, 2013.
- Jenson, D. "Placing Haiti in Geopsychoanalytic Space: Toward a Postcolonial Concept of Traumatic Mimesis." In Unconscious Dominions: Psychoanalysis, Trauma, and Sovereignty. 2011.
- Jenson, D. "Surrealism and the Avant Garde Novel, and The Decadent Novel." In The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the Novel. 2011.
- Jenson, D. "The Writing of Disaster in Haiti: Signifying Cataclysm from Slave Revolution to Earth Quake." In Haiti Rising, edited by M Munro, 103-112. Liverpool University Press, 2010.
- 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, 15-35. Liverpool University Press, 2010.
- 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, 15-35. Liverpool, UK: Liverpool University Press, 2010. (Chapter)
- Jenson, D. "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, DJWCL. "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, D. "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, D. "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 C Ndiaye, 27-56. Presses nationales d’Haïti, 2007.
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Datasets
- Szabo, V, Jenson, D, Cloninger, E, Corbett, P, Hoyle, M, Ivker, J, Jernigan, E, Mitril, S, Neville, A, Patel, D, Duke University Haiti Laboratory, and John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute, . "19th-Century Caribbean Cholera Timemap." (2011). Link to Item
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Journal Articles
- Jenson, D. "Neuroscience and the Poetics of the Haitian Declaration of Independence." Edited by J Gaffield. (2014). (Academic Article)
- 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): 615-638. (Review) Full Text
- Jenson, D. "Jean-Jacques Dessalines and the African Character of the Haitian Revolution." WILLIAM AND MARY QUARTERLY 69, no. 3 (July 2012): 615-636. Full Text Open Access Copy Link to Item
- Crichlow, , Northover, , and Jenson, . "Introduction: Caribbean Entanglements in Times of Crises." The Global South 6, no. 1 (2012): 1-1. Full Text Open Access Copy
- Jenson, D, and Dubois, L. "Humanities in the Lab: Rethinking Haitian Studies." Diversity and Democracy: Civic Learning for Shared Futures 15 (2012).
- Jenson, D. "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, D. "Haiti Unbound: A Spiralist Challenge to the Postcolonial Canon." RESEARCH IN AFRICAN LITERATURES 43, no. 3 (2012): 135-136. Full Text Open Access Copy Link to Item
- Jenson, D. "Kidnapped Narratives: Mobility without Autonomy and the Nation/Novel Analogy." (November 25, 2011): 369-386. (Chapter) Full Text Open Access Copy
- Jenson, D, Szabo, V, and Duke FHI Haiti Humanities Laboratory Student Research Team, . "Cholera in Haiti and other Caribbean regions, 19th century." Emerg Infect Dis 17, no. 11 (November 2011): 2130-2135. Full Text Open Access Copy Link to Item
- Jenson, D, and Szabo, V. "Cholera in Haiti and Other Caribbean Regions, 19th Century." EMERGING INFECTIOUS DISEASES 17, no. 11 (November 1, 2011): 2130-2135. (Review) Full Text Open Access Copy Link to Item
- Jenson, D, and Iacoboni, M. "Literary Biomimesis: Mirror Neurons and the Ontological Priority of Representation." California Italian Studies (2011). (Academic Article) Open Access Copy
- Jenson, D. "Colonialism, Race, and the French Romantic Imagination." INTERVENTIONS-INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES 13, no. 2 (2011): 328-330. Link to Item
- Jenson, D. "Dessalines’s American Proclamations of the Haitian Independence." The Journal of Haitian Studies Vol. 15 (2010): 72-102. (Academic Article) Open Access Copy
- Jenson, D. "The Common Without Copies, the International Without Cosmopolitanism: Marx Against the Romanticism of Likeness." Rethinking Marxism 22 (2010): 420-433. (Academic Article) Open Access Copy
- Jenson, D. "Hegel and Dessalines: Philosophy and the African Diaspora." New West Indian Guide 84 (2010): 4-9. (Academic Article) Open Access Copy
- Jenson, D. "HEGEL AND DESSALINES: PHILOSOPHY AND THE AFRICAN DIASPORA." NWIG-NEW WEST INDIAN GUIDE-NIEUWE WEST-INDISCHE GIDS 84, no. 3-4 (2010): 269-275. Full Text Link to Item
- Jenson, D. "Myth, History, and Witnessing in Marceline Desbordes-Valmore’s Caribbean Poetics." Edited by A Paliyenko. L’Esprit Créateur 47 (2007): 329-343. (Academic Article) Open Access Copy
- Jenson, D. "Before Malcolm X, Dessalines: A ‘French’ Tradition of Black Atlantic Radicalism." Edited by A Hargreaves and J-M Mourra. International Journal of Francophone Studies 10 (2007): 329-342. (Academic Article) Open Access Copy
- Jenson, D. "Myth, History, and Witnessing in Marceline Desbordes-Valmore's Caribbean Poetics." L'Esprit Créateur 47, no. 4 (2007): 81-92. Full Text
- Jenson, D. "The Persons and Things School: Parrots, Peasants, and Pariahs in "Un Coeur simple" and La Chaumiere indienne." differences 17, no. 3 (January 1, 2006): 107-125. Full Text Open Access Copy
- Jenson, D. "Louise Ackermann's Monstrous Nature." Symposium 53, no. 4 (2000): 234-247. Open Access Copy
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Journal Issues
- Jenson, D, Desormeaux, D, Bongie, C, Kadish, D, and Nesbitt, NF. "The Haiti Issue: 1804 and Nineteenth-Century French Studies." Edited by Jenson, D. Yale French Studies , no. 107 (2005). (Journal Issue) Link to Item
- Jenson, D, Desormeaux, D, Bongie, C, Kadish, D, and Nesbitt, NF. "The Haiti Issue: 1804 and Nineteenth-Century French Studies." Edited by Jenson, D. Yale French Studies , no. 107 (2005). (Journal Issue) Link to Item
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Other Articles
- Jenson, D, and Dubois, L. "Haiti Can Be Rich Again." New York Times (January 8, 2012). (Scholarly Commentary)
- 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 107 (December 1, 2005): 162-186.
- Jenson, D. "The Haiti Issue." Yale French Studies 107 (2005).
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Artistic Works & Non-Print Media
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Installations
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- Teaching & Mentoring
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Recent Courses
- FRENCH 481: Flaubert's Brain: Neurohumanities 2018
- FRENCH 481P: Flaubert's Brain: Neurohumanities Preceptorial 2018
- GLHLTH 390: Special Topics in Global Health Studies 2018
- GLHLTH 391-1: Independent Study in Global Health 2018
- GLHLTH 391: Independent Study in Global Health 2018
- LIT 246: Flaubert's Brain: Neurohumanities 2018
- LIT 390: Special Topics in Literature 2018
- LIT 540S: Methods and Theories of Romance Studies 2018
- NEUROSCI 241: Flaubert's Brain: Neurohumanities 2018
- ROMST 390: Special Topics in Romance Studies 2018
- ROMST 391: Independent Study 2018
- ROMST 501S: Methods and Theories of Romance Studies 2018
- GLHLTH 393: Research Independent Study in Global Health 2017
- ROMST 495: Honors Thesis 2017
- ROMST 791: Independent Study 2017
- NEUROSCI 242A: The Creative Brain: Literature, Arts & Cognition 2016
- ROMST 242A: The Creative Brain: Literature, Arts & Cognition 2016
- ROMST 395T: Romance Studies Health Humanities Lab Tutorial 2016
- Scholarly, Clinical, & Service Activities
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Presentations & Appearances
- Neuroscience and the Poetics of the Haitian Declaration of Independence. December 9, 2013 2013
- Revolutionary Practices. December 5, 2013 2013
- L'aire de Firmin. November 11, 2013 2013
- Adrian and Marcel Proust: Fathering Neurasthenic Memory. October 23, 2013 2013
- Les Cicatrices de Dessalines. April 1, 2013 2013
- Plenary, "African Roots and Revolution in Latin America and the Caribbean". March 19, 2013 2013
- Flaubert and Epilepsy and "Haiti to New Orleans," Katherine P. Gore Chair Lectures. March 1, 2013 2013
- Les Cicatrices de Dessalines. October 17, 2012 2012
- Flaubert's Brain: Neurohumanities (Plenary Lecture for the Society for French Studies). July 5, 2012 2012
- Jean-Jacques Dessalines and the African Character of the Haitian Revolution (Charles Bonnier Annual Lecture). May 6, 2012 2012
- Neuroscience and the Humanities. November 12, 2011 2011
- Digital Humanities and 19th Century French Studies: Mapping the History of Cholera. October 27, 2011 2011
- Immigration to the Republic of Letters. September 30, 2011 2011
- The Duke FHI Haiti Humanities Lab Cholera Project. April 1, 2011 2011
- Barbara Johnson’s Last Gift: Toward a New Engagement with Historical African Personhood. January 9, 2011 2011
- Feminine Literary Persons and Things. January 8, 2011 2011
- Haiti’s Independence Denied: The French in Santo Domingo, 1804. November 13, 2010 2010
- Toward a Theory of Fat: Balzac, Capitalism, and Body Consciousness. October 1, 2010 2010
- Courtesan Poetry, the Urban Libertine Milieu, and the Haitian Revolution. September 1, 2010 2010
- Imitating Universality. May 1, 2010 2010
- Specialized Communities: Mirror Neurons and the Biosocial Politics of Resemblance. May 1, 2010 2010
- The Writing of Disaster in Haiti. May 1, 2010 2010
- Your Experience is in My Body: The Biological Precedence of Representation in the Mirror Neuron Paradigm. May 1, 2010 2010
- Francophone World Literature (littérature-monde) and Cosmopolitanism: Citizen of the World without the Citizen?. November 1, 2009 2009
- Mirror Neurons and Mimesis. October 1, 2009 2009
- Second Nature: The Biosocial Construction of Likeness. September 1, 2009 2009
- Le Monde Mandé et un Postcolonialisme cosmopolite et de longue durée. June 1, 2009 2009
- Haitian Romanticism and Romantic Modernity. May 1, 2009 2009
- Under the Jurisdiction of La Sirène: Anba dlò in Turner, Dessalines, and Haitian Painting. April 1, 2009 2009
- American Reactions to the Haitian Independence in the Era of Slavery. February 1, 2009 2009
- A Reconsideration of the Haitian Declaration of Independence as Text. December 1, 2008 2008
- A Reconsideration of the Haitian Declaration of Independence as Text. November 1, 2008 2008
- Napoleonic Kidnappings, from Toussaint Louverture to the Son of Henry Christophe. October 1, 2008 2008
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Outreach & Engaged Scholarship
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Service to the Profession
- Director : 3rd Annual Romance Studies Undergraduate Research Conference. March 2013 2013
- Selection Committee, Nineteenth-Century French Studies Conference. December 17, 2012 2012
- Orgaanizer : 'Old' Worlds, 'New' Worlds, Future Worlds Romance Studies Undergraduate Research Conference. March 2012 2012
- Co-Organizer : Haiti Lab Workshop, "Unveiling the Colonial System": The Baron de Vastey and the Henry Christophe Regime. December 2011 2011
- PFIRST Workshop, "Discourses of Trauma in Haiti" (Co-Organizer). November 2011 2011
- Selection Committee, NIneteenth-Century French Studies Conference. 2011 2011
- Co-Organizer (with Michaeline Crichlow (Duke, Sociology and AAAS, Patricia Northover (UWI, SALISES), Matthew Smith (UWI, History, Faculty of the Human : States of Freedom, Freedom of States. June 1, 2010 2010
- Editorial Consultant Team, Norton Anthology of World Literature. December 17, 2009 2009
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