Jennifer Sears

Jennifer Sears is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at the School of Arts & Sciences, City University of New York (CUNY) - New York City College of Technology (City Tech). She teaches creative writing and first-year writing, and serves as Co-Coordinator of the Creative Writing Minor.

• MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction), Columbia University School of the Arts
• BA in English, Bethel College

Her research focuses on narrative theory, digital storytelling, and first-year writing pedagogy. She has explored Nabokov's dream symbolism, Emerson's literary influence, and Mennonite cultural narratives. Current work examines NLP applications in educational storytelling.

Recent publications span literary analysis (Emerson, Nabokov), creative writing pedagogy, and digital humanities projects. Her work frequently appears in Witness, Guernica, and North American Review.

• John Simmons Short Fiction Award (2025)
• Northeast Modern Language Association Fiction Book Award (2024)
• National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
• New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship
• National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute Scholar (2015)

She has developed the "Our Stories" digital writing project, creating web-based belonging systems for first-year students through collaborative narrative analysis and educational technology integration. Her work has been cited in Best American Short Stories and Best American Essays.