Jennifer Jahner

Jennifer Jahner is a Professor of English and Dean of Undergraduate Students at California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where she has been affiliated since 2012. She holds a B.A. from Western Washington University (1998), an M.A. from the University of Colorado at Boulder (2005), and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania (2012). Her academic career includes roles as Assistant Professor (2012-19) and Professor (2019-present), alongside her administrative position as Dean (2023-). Jahner is also the Fletcher Jones Foundation Distinguished Fellow at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

• B.A., Western Washington University, 1998
• M.A., University of Colorado at Boulder, 2005
• Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 2012

Jahner’s research sits at the intersection of medieval literature, law, natural philosophy, and gender studies. She investigates how premodern concepts of rhetoric and evidence inform contemporary understandings of justice, forecasting, and uncertainty. Her work often bridges humanities and computational thinking, examining predictive models in medieval manuscripts alongside modern AI-driven systems. Current projects include her book Arts of Conjecture: The Medieval Origins of Modern Prediction, which explores how historical practices like astrology relate to today’s algorithmic forecasting.

Her publications span topics such as medieval legal texts, experimental knowledge in manuscripts, and Chaucer’s poetic structures. Jahner’s research has been supported by prestigious fellowships, including the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Fellowship and Borchard Foundation Grant. She has also received multiple teaching awards, such as the Associated Students of Caltech (ASCIT) Teaching Award and Caltech’s Brass Award for Teaching Excellence.

• American Council of Learned Societies Fellow (2019–2020)
• Graves/ACLS Award in the Humanities (2018–2019)
• Borchard Foundation Grant (2018)
• Brass Award for Teaching (2015–2016)
• ASCIT Teaching Award (2012–2013)

Jahner’s recent work connects medieval predictive technologies to modern data science, analyzing figures like Claudius Ptolemy’s Almagest and Tetrabiblos alongside 21st-century mortality prediction algorithms. Her lecture series at The Huntington and Caltech’s Watson Lectures highlight these interdisciplinary links, emphasizing how historical struggles with uncertainty inform present-day debates about risk, ethics, and algorithmic governance.

She contributes to the Caltech-Huntington Program in Visual Culture and serves as Book Review Editor for Studies in the Age of Chaucer. Her teaching covers courses like Sinners, Saints, and Sexuality in Premodern Literature and Poetry and the Project of Justice, reflecting her commitment to integrating historical analysis with contemporary societal challenges.