X
GO
September Member of the Month



Jennifer Fredette Sept 2019

 

DR. JENNIFER FREDETTE
SEPTEMBER MEMBER OF THE MONTH

Ohio University
Department of Political Science
Member since 2005

 

Jennifer Fredette is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Ohio University. Her research focuses on the limits of citizenship, which she explores through such themes as law and identity, legal consciousness, and legal mobilization. She earned her Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Washington in Seattle, studied at Sciences Po-Paris in 2006, and was a visiting research fellow at Sciences Po-Bordeaux in 2008. Her first book,  Constructing Muslims in France: Elite Discourse, Public Identity, and the Politics of Citizenship  (Temple University Press, 2014), explores the disconnect between how Muslims and French elites discuss citizenship, identity, and belonging. Her work has been published in  Studies in Law, Politics, and Society and Law and Social Inquiry . Dr. Fredette spent Spring of 2017 as a visiting researcher at the Université des Antilles (LC2S), where she conducted fieldwork as part of a project examining social movements, labor, and law in Martinique. In the summer of 2019, she carried out fieldwork interviewing Antilleans living in Paris. She is now busy at work on her second monograph, which will be on the French Caribbean.


 

WHY DID YOU BECOME A POLITICAL SCIENTIST?

 I enjoy researching and writing about power and resistance.


WHY DID YOU JOIN APSA AND WHY DO YOU CONTINUE TO STAY INVOLVED?

I initially joined APSA because I was thinking about the job market, and APSA offered the widest interview opportunities. I continue to stay involved because I really appreciate the connections and scholarly exchanges I get to make through the French Politics Group. Folks at FPG really helped me to get my career off the ground, and I owe a lot to them!

 

WHAT IS THE MOST CHALLENGING ASPECT OF BEING A POLITICAL SCIENTIST? 

No different than it is for any other academic: knowing most of my students will be graduating with enormous amounts of debt; fighting for funding and writing time at every turn.

 

IF YOU COULD GIVE ONE PIECE OF ADVICE TO SOMEONE IN THEIR GRADUATE/UNDERGRADUATE YEARS, WHAT WOULD IT BE AND WHY?

 Take care of yourself. You are worthy, and so is your physical and mental health.


OUTSIDE OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, TELL US SOMETHING INTERESTING ABOUT YOURSELF. 

My excellent colleague Allison Rank (SUNY Oswego) and I are writing a scholarly piece about Hermione Granger as an antidote to and warning against shallow girl-empowerment narratives.

back-motm