Associate Professor; Chair, American Studies Department; Interim Program Director, African American Studies
Areas of Interest: anti-racism, social justice, DEJI, activism studies; autobiography and memoir studies; Black women’s literature and cultural history; dialogue studies (circle processes, non-violent communication, restorative practices, race and gender dialogues, Sustained Dialogue); immigration and refugee studies (fiction, memoir); pedagogy theory (place-based, community-engaged, Black feminist); and race, racism, and whiteness studies.
Office:Fay 103
Phone:(585) 385-8110
Jennifer Rossi
Certifications:

Apple Teacher

Education:

Ph.D., University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
M.A., University of North Carolina at Charlotte
B.A., State University of New York at Geneseo

Dr. Rossi is actively involved with dialogue work in the Rochester community and on campus, with student groups, staff, and faculty. Her classes create and hold many campus-wide events, such as Casual Conversations, #SocialWithoutMedia, EuStress: Health and Wellness Fair, Get Woke, and many others, as well as hosting an annual Toy, Warm Clothing and Hygiene Drive for Mary's Place Refugee Outreach. She develops and teaches courses in immigration stories, American memoir and autobiography, community-engaged learning, refugees in Rochester, and feminist dialogues. She mainly teaches in American Studies, while also serving African American Studies, Women and Gender Studies, the Honors Program, and the Fisher Core. She is expanding her use of place-based studies to connect students to understandings, experiences, and community partners in the Rochester area. Her research is most recently in dialogue studies and post-pandemic pedagogies.

"I'm passionate about teaching, and I’m always interested in learning more about the beliefs and attitudes that change our culture—whether they are in the songs we hear, the stories we read, the videos we watch, the things we remember, or the ideas that inspire us."

Publications

  • “‘Let the words bring wings to our feet’: Negotiating Exile and Trauma through Narrative in Danticat’s Breath, Eyes, Memory,” Contemporary Literary Criticism (vol. 416), 2017. Edited by Lawrence J. Trudeau.
  • "'I didn’t know there were refugees in Rochester': Developing Citizenship Through Service Learning," Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy, XX.2 (Fall 2009/Winter 2010): 76-89.
  • Rev. of African American Literature and the Classicist Tradition: Black Women Writers from Wheatley to Morrison, by Tracey L. Walters. New York: Palgrave, 2007. Studies in the Novel 41.3 (Fall 2009): 397-399.
  • Rev. of African, Native, and Jewish American Literature and the Reshaping of Modernism, by Alicia A. Kent. New York: Palgrave, 2007. Studies in the Novel 41.3 (Fall 2009): 387-390.
  • "'Let the words bring wings to our feet': Negotiating Exile and Trauma through Narrative in Danticat's Breath, Eyes, Memory," Obsidian III: Literature in the African Diaspora, (Fall/Winter 2005-Spring/Summer 2006): 203-220.

Committees and Boards

  • Fisher Core Committee
  • First-Year Programs Advisory Board
  • Service-Learning Advisory Board
  • Women and Gender Studies Advisory Board