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
Scholarly/Creative Work
Awards
Grants
Service

Biography Section

Research Interests

 I situate my work at the intersection of anthropology, education, and social justice, with a strong commitment to critical pedagogy, cultural studies, and teacher education. Through ethnographic and performance-based methods, I examine how power, identity, and activism shape teaching and learning. Much of my research focuses on borderland or transnational contexts, particularly at the U.S.–Mexico border and within popular education movements in Argentina, exploring how educators and communities negotiate language, culture, and trauma in both formal and informal educational spaces. I also draw on feminist and critical theory while integrating pop culture and media analysis to reveal how neoliberalism, gender, race, and class influence education. Overall, I strive to foster culturally responsive pedagogy, democratic education, and social transformation through community-centered, activist-oriented approaches to teaching and teacher development.

Selected Scholarly/Creative Work

  • O’Donnell, J. L. (2025). Critical civics and democratic education through Us and Them divides on HBO’s The Leftovers. Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, 22(1), 54–74.
  • O’Donnell, J. L., & Norris, A. (2025). Performance ethnography as a tool for cultivating culturally responsive teachers in online classrooms: A six phase approach. Action in Teacher Education.
  • O’Donnell, J. L. (n.d.). Walter Benjamin in the bathhouse: Meditations on robot mothers, daydreams, and art in the AI era. Anthropology and Humanism.
  • 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). Adolescent healing through shamanism and the carnivalesque in the trauma-sensitive classroom. Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, 21(4), 576–593.

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