Jessica L. Harris

Jessica L. Harris is an Assistant Professor of History at the Department of History, St. John's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, St. John's University. She holds a Ph.D. and two M.A. degrees in History and Afro-American Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), alongside a B.A. in History from UCLA.

Her research focuses on African American History, 20th-century U.S. and global contexts, Black Europe, Women’s History, and Modern Italy, with emphasis on gender and race intersections in material culture and identity formation. Her current book project explores transnational cultural histories of race and gender relations between Italy and the U.S., analyzing African American women’s presence in Italian media, film, and fashion post-1945.

Her publications include analyses of Italian-American cultural exchanges, post-fascist Italian societal dynamics, and Cold War-era media representation. Key works include Italian Women’s Experiences with American Consumer Culture, 1945-1975: The Italian Mrs. Consumer (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) and studies on Afro-Italian representation in television and magazines.

Her research employs methodologies from critical race studies, gender studies, and post-colonial studies to interrogate transnational cultural narratives. She has contributed to journals such as Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome and Modern Italy, exploring themes like latent fascism in postwar Italy and the role of American beauty standards in Italian media.