Women's and Gender Studies Jenn Brandt

Dr. Jenn Brandt serves as the director of Women’s and Gender Studies, as well as an assistant professor of English at High Point University. Dr. Brandt overseas the day-to-day operations of the program, as well as teaches for both Women’s and Gender Studies and the Department of English. Her favorite aspect of the job, though, is mentoring students whose research interests explore the intersections of gender with public policy, culture, and social justice.

“I am honored and thrilled to be the director of HPU’s brand new minor in Women’s and Gender Studies,” says Brandt. “Women’s and Gender Studies is a vital and growing academic field, and its inclusion in the HPU curriculum is another testament to the diversity and excellence of academics at High Point University.”

Dr. Brandt’s work focuses on gender and cultural studies in literature, film, and television, and she is particularly interested in the ways in which politics have shaped and are reflected in the contemporary novel. One of Brandt’s main research interests is feminism’s relationship to popular culture and the problematics of postfeminism.  This fall her essay, “Here’s To Not Being Fake: Bravo’s The Real Housewives and the Postfeminist Heroine” will be published in Foregrounding Postfeminism and the Future of Feminist Film and Media Studies,and she recently completed a chapter for the edited collection Personal Effects: Essays on Memoir, Family, and Culture in the Work of Louise DeSalvo. Dr. Brandt’s current research project is a book-length study of the life and works of artist and writer Theresa Hak Kyung Cha.

Brandt earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Drew University. She received her Master of Arts degree in popular culture from Bowling Green State University, before completing her doctorate in English and graduate certificate in Women’s Studies at the University of Rhode Island.