"A collaborative, co-created classroom provides the best space for students to learn from me and each other and for me to learn from and with them. Teaching and learning happen in all directions, and while there are certain skill sets students come to college to master, I believe in allowing for the unexpected to evolve alongside and in relation to the development of those skills."
Jennifer Bess
Associate Professor of Peace Studies and Public Health
Jennifer Bess is an Associate Professor of Academic Program at 水果派AV解说in Baltimore, Maryland. She completed her doctorate, with a specialization in Early Modern English literature, in 1995 at the Catholic University of America. After graduating, she began teaching in 水果派AV解说鈥檚 composition program and served as the community-based learning coordinator from 2001-2011. During that time, she also began teaching in the Peace program. In courses that are broadly humanistic and include history and literature, she addresses issues of power and resistance to hegemony.
Research, Scholarship, Creative Work in Progress
My current research involves Native American border-crossings before, during, and after the Spanish-American War. While some Indigenous peoples鈥� homelands spanned the U.S.-Mexico border, other peoples migrated to Mexico specifically to escape U.S. settlement and control. The context of the War highlights their differing relationships with the border and the intensity of U.S. response to their mobility.
Publications
鈥淚ndigenous Knowledge: Scaling the Impact of Archeological Research up, out, and across.鈥�Collaborative Archaeology: How Native American Knowledge Enhances Our Collective Understanding of the Past, edited by Chris Loendorf, University of Arizona Press, 2026, pp. 9-30.
鈥淐owboy Diplomacy.鈥� History Today, August 2025, pp. 22-24.
鈥�.鈥� The Oral History Review, vol. 51, no.1, pp. 6鈥�29.
"." Pacific Historical Review, vol. 93, no. 2, pp. 169-201.
Where the Red-Winged Blackbirds Sing: The Akimel O鈥檕dham and Cycles of Agricultural Transformation in the Phoenix Basin. University Press of Colorado, 2021.
鈥�.鈥� Western Historical Quarterly, vol. 51, no. 2, 2020, pp. 137-160.
鈥溾�橧 on my horse, and love on me鈥�: Contextualizing the Equestrian Metaphors of Sir Philip Sidney鈥檚 Astrophil and Stella.鈥� Reading the Natural World in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: Perspectives on Ecology and the Environment, edited by Thomas Willard. Arizona Studies in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, 46, Brepols Publishers, 2020, pp. 177-232.
鈥�.鈥� Journal of the Southwest, vol. 61, no. 4, 2019, pp. 725-64.
鈥淭he Essence of Nightmare and the Anti-essentialism of Haitian History in Ren茅 Philoct猫te鈥檚 Massacre River.鈥� Writings on Caribbean History, Literature, Art and Culture: One Love, edited by Irline Fran莽ois, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018, pp. 21-45.
鈥�.鈥� Studies in American Indian Literatures, vol. 29, no. 3 2017, pp. 29-63.
鈥�.鈥� Ethnohistory, vol. 63, no. 1, 2016, pp. 119鈥�142.
鈥�.鈥� Western Historical Quarterly, vol. 46, no.2, 2015, pp. 171鈥�189.
鈥�.鈥� Agricultural History, vol. 88, no. 4, 2014, pp. 491-516.
鈥�.鈥� Journal of the Southwest, vol. 55, no. 2, 2013, pp. 193-226.
鈥�.鈥� American Indian Quarterly, vol. 37, no. 1/2, 2013, pp. 77鈥�110.
鈥�.鈥� South Asian Review, vol. 33, no. 2, 2012, pp. 117-38.
鈥�.鈥� Wicazo Sa Review, vol. 26, no. 2, 2011, pp. 13-38.
Fran莽ois, Irline and Jennifer Bess. 鈥�.鈥� Anglistica AION: An Interdisciplinary Journal, vol. 14, no. 1, 2010, pp. 74-84.
External Awards, Honors, Grants
2025 鈥� Honorable mention for the Judith Lee Ridge Prize of the Western Association for Women Historians.
2016 鈥� James Madison Prize, awarded for outstanding articles or essays on any aspect of the history of the federal government, the Society for History in the Federal Government.
Conference Papers & Panel Participation
鈥淚ndigenous Knowledge: Scaling the Impact of Archaeological Research up, out, and across.鈥� Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting. New Orleans, LA, 2024.
鈥淭he Indian Reorganization Act and Efforts to Restore the Pima Agricultural Economy on the Gila River," People and Places Lecture Series, Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 2021.
鈥淐apacity-Building for All: Community-Based Learning Networks Fashioned to Survive a Pandemic.鈥� Association of American Colleges and Universities Conference on General Education, Pedagogy, and Assessment, 2021.
鈥淭he Maasai of Kenya: A Case Study in Positive Peace and Strategic Adaptation to Globalization.鈥� Thirteenth Global Studies Research Conference. Global Studies Research Network, Concordia University, Montr茅al, Canada, 2020.
鈥溾�橞lack Takes No Other Color鈥�: Empiricism, Religion, and the Evolution of Ideologies of Exclusion.鈥� Joint Conference for the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and the Medieval Association of the Pacific, Phoenix, AZ, 2019.
鈥淎n Alternative to Conquest: Horsemanship and Philip Sidney鈥檚 Homage to Nature.鈥� Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Phoenix, AZ, 2018.
鈥淯npacking the Mirage of Progress and Its Reign over History a Tribute to Michel-Rolph Trouillot.鈥� Haitian Studies Association, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 2013.
鈥淚ntegrating Disciplines & Crossing Boundaries: 水果派AV解说 College鈥檚 Senior Service-Learning Capstone 2002.鈥� Paper delivered with Dr. Gail Edmonds, Ray Dabak (鈥�02) and Constance Herasingh (鈥�02). Association of American Colleges and Universities, St. Louis, MO, 2002.
鈥淢aking Connections: A Service-Learning Liberal Arts Course.鈥� Maryland Association for Higher Education. Baltimore, MD, 2001.
鈥淎rtifacts and Ambiguities in Myriam Warner-Vieyra鈥檚 Juletane.鈥� African Literature Association. Richmond, VA, 2001.
鈥淟oud Silences and Original Endings: Narrative Design in Julia Alvarez鈥� How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents.鈥� Northeast Modern Language Association. Buffalo, NY, 2000.
Other Professional or Scholarly Activity
鈥�.鈥� Hosted by Stephen Hausmann. New Books Network, 31 July 2025.
鈥�.鈥� UC Press Blog, 21 May 2025.