Faculty Profile for Dr. Jennifer Lee O'Donnell

profile photo for Dr. Jennifer Lee O'Donnell
Dr. Jennifer Lee O'Donnell
Assistant Professor — Curriculum And Instruction
ED 3044
phone: (512) 245-3701

Biography Section

Research Interests

In my academic work, I explore the impact of race, culture, gender, sexuality, land, and migration-related traumas on education. Using diverse texts, theories, and methodologies across education activism, teacher identity, and media studies, I draw on community insights to understand how these traumas influence learning and teaching within specific societal contexts.

Selected Scholarly/Creative Work

  • O’Donnell, J. L. (2024). Dirty care in the transfronterizo experience: Walking with Mexicali/Calexico teachers through their youth. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 55(1), 65–83.
  • O’Donnell, J. L. (2024). Hitting at the heart of a massive problem:  Articulating a democratic education through feminist practices of freedom and urban farm movements in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Ethnography and Education, 19(1), 34–54.
  • O’Donnell, J. L., & Kagan, M. O. (2024). Praise for An Ordinary Future: Rethinking inclusivity through emotionally honest scholarship that interrogates anthropological paradigms of disability. NEOS.
  • O’Donnell, J. L., & Sadlier, S. T. (2023). Becoming with education-based social movements through diffractive analysis. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 54(2), 183–193.
  • O’Donnell, J. L. (2023). Forging an identity as a transfronterizo student in the context of neoliberalism and English language learning at the U.S.-Mexico border. Journal of Latinos and Education, 22(5), 2215–2231.

Selected Awards

  • Award / Honor Recipient: Douglas Foley Early Career Award (Runner Up), Council on Anthropology and Education. 2024
  • Award / Honor Recipient: American Anthropological Association’s Council on Anthropology and Education/Studies in Educational Ethnography Travel Award (Recipient), Emerald Publishing. 2021
  • Award / Honor Recipient: Frederick Erickson Outstanding Dissertation Award (Semi-Finalist), American Anthropological Association’s Council of Anthropology and Education. 2020
  • Award / Honor Nominee: Gail P. Kelly Award for Outstanding Dissertation (Finalist), Comparative and International Education Society. 2018
  • Award / Honor Recipient: Joseph W. Kiteley Student of Merit Award (Recipient), University of Massachusetts, Amherst. 2011

Selected Grants

  • O'Donnell, Jennifer Lee, Lopez, Kathya (Supporting). Teachers who cross borders: Education and economic mobility in the Borderlands, University Grants Program: SDSU Division of Research Affairs, Institutional (Higher Ed), $10000. (Funded: 2020). Grant.
  • O'Donnell, Jennifer Lee (Principal), Cardenas, Jesse (Supporting). Teachers who cross borders: Education and economic mobility in the Borderlands, Dean’s Research Fellows Grant, Institutional (Higher Ed), $6200. (Funded: 2020). Grant.
  • O'Donnell, Jennifer Lee (Principal). Archival research at Instituto Paulo Freire in São Paulo, Brazil, UMASS Graduate School Travel Grant, Institutional (Higher Ed), $2000. (Funded: 2015). Grant.
  • O'Donnell, Jennifer Lee (Other). The immigrant experience in California through literature and history, Summer Seminars and Institutes for Higher Education Faculty: National Endowment for the Humanities Institute, Federal, $2300. (Funded: 2014). Grant.
  • O'Donnell, Jennifer Lee (Principal). Pilot study for dissertation research in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Labor Studies Research Grant: UMASS Sociology Department, Institutional (Higher Ed), $1000. (Funded: 2011). Grant.

Selected Service Activities

Reviewer / Referee
Reading Research Quarterly
2024-Present
Reviewer / Referee
Ethnography and Education Journal
2024-Present
Member
College of Education/Curriculum and Instruction Secondary Residency Committee. Texas State University.
2023-Present
Member
Office of Educator Preparation Student Review Committee. Texas State University.
2023-Present
Reviewer / Referee
Division G and Adolescence and Youth Development SIG. The American Educational Research Association.
2023-Present