Visiting Assistant Professor, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Email: [email protected]

Phone: (616) 331-8103

Office:  211 Lake Ontario Hall

Professor Lyons educational and research interests include women, gender, and sexuality studies; gender, sexuality, and the state; popular culture representations of identity; television; public memory and systems of power; heritage tourism; nostalgia as a tool of identity-making for American small towns; the small town as a fictional setting. Her doctoral research centered on a small town in Missouri and the ways in which its heritage tourism industry reflects a commodified, neoliberal function of local history. In addition to this area of research, Jenna is also interested in how historic preservation efforts and heritage tourism appear in pop culture texts. Jenna’s teaching interests are interdisciplinary and examine how politics, identities, and often popular culture, impact and are impacted by history. 

New to the Grand Rapids area, Jenna spends her free time taking her senior dog, Tilly, on walks, gardening, and making repairs to her 100 year old home. 

Education:
PhD: American Studies, University of Kansas, 2021
MA: American Studies, University of Kansas, 2014
BA: Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature, University of Minnesota, 2007

Classes:
WGS 101: Introduction to Women’s Studies
WGS 255: Gender & Popular Culture

 

Presentations:

Missouri Conference on History, St. Louis, MO, 2020

Paper presented: “Preserving America” and Performing Heritage in Weston, Missouri

 

American Studies Association, Atlanta, GA, 2018

Paper presented: “‘Preserve America’: The Project of Constructing Heritage in a Small Missouri Town”

 

National Women’s Studies Association, Baltimore, MD, 2017

Paper presented: “‘Here for the Right Reasons’: White Heteropatriarchy and The Bachelor

Franchise’s Chad and Corinne,” co-authored with Alex Stucky, University of Kansas

 

Mid-America American Studies Association, Lawrence, KS, 2016

Paper presented: “Memories of Main Street: The Legacy of Weaver’s Department Store”

 

Midwest Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association, Cincinnati, OH, 2015 Paper presented: “Nostalgic for Nostalgia: Jimmy Fallon, Timehop, and Saturday Night Live”

 

Lawrence Art Center’s Free State Festival, Lawrence, KS, 2015

Paper presented: “Color-‘Blind Auditions’: Race and Gender Identity on The Voice”

 

University of Kansas Film and Media Graduate Symposium, Lawrence, KS, 2014 Paper presented: “Northern Exposure: How Fans ‘Return to Cicely’ on Facebook”

 

Southwest Popular Culture American Culture Association Conference, Albuquerque, NM, 2013 Paper presented: “American Girl: Girlhood, History, and American Consumers”

 

Panels:

Emily Taylor Center for Women and Gender Equity, Lawrence, KS, 2017 Panel: Reality Roast: Discussing Gender Through Reality TV, The Bachelor

American Studies Association, Denver, CO, 2016

Panel: Graduate Education Committee’s “A Critical Look at alt-ac” Mid-America American Studies Association, Lawrence, KS, 2016

Panel: “What it Means to be an American Studies Graduate Student in 2016”