Jennifer Nelson Ph.D.
Department Chair; Professor
Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, History, Faculty Experts
Education
- Ph.D., United States history, Rutgers University
- B.A., semiotics, Brown University
Professional Background
Jennifer Nelson is a United States historian with an emphasis in women's history. Her dissertation became her first book, Women of Color and the Reproductive Rights Movement (NYU Press, 2003). Her second book, More Than Medicine: A History of the Women's Health Movement (NYU Press, 2016), extended her research on the feminist and women's health movements in the United States. She also co-edited with Barbara Molony a volume on transnational feminism, Women's Activism and "Second Wave" Feminism: Transnational Histories.
Nelson has published articles in a variety of women's history, medical history, and women's studies journals on the subject of reproductive rights, women's health, and social justice movements. Her first article on the feminist abortion rights movement in Mexico, "Abortion Rights and Human Rights in Mexico," in Tanya Saroj Bakhru, ed., Reproductive Justice and Sexual Rights: Transnational Perspectives, was published in 2019 (Routledge). She is currently working on a book-length project on the movements for and against legal abortion in Mexico.
Academic Experience
- Professor and director, Women's and Gender Studies Program, University of Redlands, July 2014–present
- Associate professor and director, Women's and Gender Studies Program, University of Redlands, July 2008–July 2014
- Assistant professor, Women's Studies Program, University of Redlands, September 2004–June 2008
- Director, Sarah Isom Center for Women, University of Mississippi, July 2003–July 2004
- Assistant director, Sarah Isom Center for Women, University of Mississippi, August 2002–July 2003
- Visiting assistant professor, women's studies, State University of New York at New Paltz, September 2001–August 2002
- Lecturer, women's and gender studies, Rutgers University, September 1999–July 2001
Areas of Expertise
- History of feminism in the United States
- Reproductive health
- Reproductive politics
- Women's health
Publications
Books
- Nelson, Jennifer. More Than Medicine: A History of the Feminist Women's Health Movement. New York: New York University Press, 2015.
- Molony, Barbara, and Jennifer Nelson, eds. Women's Activism and "Second Wave" Feminism: Transnational Histories. London: Bloomsbury Press, 2016.
- Nelson, Jennifer. Women of Color and the Reproductive Rights Movement. New York: New York University Press, 2003.
Journal Articles
- Nelson, Jennifer. "Historicizing Body Knowledge: Women's Liberation, Self-Help, and Menstrual Representation in the 1970s." Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 40, no. 1 (2019): 39–62.
- Nelson, Jennifer. "'Breaking the Chain of Poverty': Family Planning and the Population Council/Office of Economic Opportunity Alliance." Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 69, no. 1 (2014).
- Nelson, Jennifer. "'All This That Has Happened to Me Shouldn't Happen to Nobody Else': Loretta Ross and the Women of Color Reproductive Freedom Movement of the 1980s." Journal of Women's History 22, no. 3 (2010).
- Nelson, Jennifer. "Health Care Reconsidered: Forging Community Wellness among African Americans in the South." Bulletin of the History of Medicine 81, no. 3 (2007).
- Nelson, Jennifer. "Using Blogs and Wikis in the Women's Studies Classroom." Feminist Collections: A Quarterly of Women's Studies Resources 27, no. 2 (2006).
- Nelson, Jennifer. "'Hold Your Head Up and Stick Out Your Chin': Community Health and Women's Health in Mound Bayou, Mississippi." NWSA Journal 17, no. 1 (2005).
- Nelson, Jennifer. "'Abortions under Community Control': Feminism, Nationalism, and the Politics of Reproduction among New York City's Young Lords." Journal of Women's History 13, no. 1 (2001).
Affiliations
- Berkshires Conference of Women Historians
- National Women's Studies Association
- Western Association of Women's Historians