Role
Dr Jenny Woodley is a Lecturer in Modern American History, with research expertise in African American History.
She teaches on the following courses and modules:
- MA in History
- HIST309 The African American Experience in History and Memory
- HIST207 Land of Liberty: History of the United States, 1815-2000
- HIST103 Creating the Modern
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Career overview
Jenny Woodley received an MRes and PhD in American History from the University of Nottingham. She was a Kluge fellow at the Library of Congress. She has taught at the University of Warwick, University of Leicester and University of Nottingham.
Research areas
Research interests include:
- African American history
- African American culture
- Race and Memory
- Lynching
- Memory and Mourning
- American Civil War memory
Dr Woodley is currently working on research which, broadly, looks at race and memory in the United States. Recent work has included the first academic study of the Mary McLeod Bethune Memorial in Washington D.C., and an analysis of the vandalism of Confederate monuments by Black Lives Matter activists. Dr Woodley’s new project investigates the opportunities and spaces for remembering and mourning African American victims of lynching. Mourning individuals, families and communities devastated by lynching challenges the oppressive power of violence. This project seeks to uncover these acts of resistance.
Opportunities to carry out postgraduate research towards an MPhil/PhD exist in the areas of African American History and Memory. Jenny is keen to attract proposals from postgraduate researchers on themes relating to African American History and to Memory and Commemoration. Further information may be obtained from the NTU Graduate School.
External activity
Jenny Woodley is on the Executive Board of the British Association of American Studies and is on the Board of the European Association of American Studies.
Publications
Recent publications
- Art for Equality: The NAACP's Cultural Campaign for Civil Rights. Woodley J, 2014, University Press of Kentucky
- “Ma is in the park”: memory, identity, and the Bethune Memorial. Woodley, J. 2018. Journal of American Studies.
Press expertise
African American History; Memory and commemoration (esp in relation to race in the USA); Confederate Memorials.