Jennifer Bajorek

Jennifer Bajorek is a Professor of Comparative Literature and Visual Studies at Hampshire College, with a concurrent role as a Senior Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg. She specializes in interdisciplinary work bridging photography, art, and literature, with a focus on West African cultural heritage. Her research spans 20 years of collaborations in West Africa, encompassing policy, conservation, and restitution initiatives. She is currently a Belknap Long-Term Visiting Fellow at Princeton University’s Humanities Council and Department of English (Spring 2026), where she will finalize a manuscript on photography’s materiality in Africa and teach a course on photography, race, and restitution.

Her work has been recognized through grants and awards, including the 2024 Arthur Rubin Outstanding Publication Award for her book Unfixed. Her research integrates postcolonial theory, material culture studies, and activism around cultural patrimony.

Her advising and grants history reflects sustained engagement with global cultural preservation, though specific grants or student advisees are not detailed in the provided text. She contributes to academic communities through institutional collaborations and public-facing scholarship on visual culture and decolonization.