Jennifer Row

Jennifer Row is an Assistant Professor in the Department of French & Italian at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, with interdisciplinary affiliations in Theatre Arts & Dance, Race, Indigeneity, Disability, Gender & Sexuality Studies, and Premodern Studies. She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Cornell University and is a recognized scholar in queer theory, disability studies, early modern performance, and affect theory.

Educational Background:

• Ph.D., Comparative Literature, Cornell University, 2014
• M.A., Comparative Literature, Cornell University, 2011
• B.A., Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Literature, Yale University, 2007

Her research explores the intersections of queerness, disability, temporality, and performance in early modern French and English drama. She investigates how affective intensities on stage challenge normative biopolitical structures and how aesthetic ideals of the body reinforce ableism. Her work is deeply interdisciplinary, drawing from literary theory, performance studies, and critical disability studies.

Her publications span journals such as ASAP/Journal, Exemplaria, and edited volumes like the Routledge Companion to Gender and Affect and the Cultural History of Tragedy. Her recent book Queer Velocities (2022) and co-edited special issue Disability's Worldmaking (2021) have significantly contributed to the fields of queer and disability studies. Her second book project, The Body Perfect, expands the scope of disability theory into early Francophone aesthetics.

Scientific Awards and Honors:

• McKnight Land-Grant Professor (2021–2023)
• Solmsen Fellow, University of Wisconsin–Madison (2016–2017)

Jennifer Row is actively involved in academic service and advocacy. She co-chairs the "Dreaming up the Change Disability Makes" initiative and leads the CLA Interdisciplinary Collaborative Workshop "Refusing Disposability: Racial and Disability Justice Toward Another World." She previously taught at Boston University and in France, and serves on the executive committee of the Society for Interdisciplinary French Seventeenth Century Studies. She also brings her commitment to inclusive pedagogy and interdisciplinary collaboration into her advising and grant work.

Labs and Collaborative Initiatives:

• Co-Leader, CLA Interdisciplinary Collaborative Workshop: "Refusing Disposability: Racial and Disability Justice Toward Another World"
• Co-Chair, Arts, Design and Humanities Imagine Project: "Dreaming up the Change Disability Makes"