At the time of teaching this course in May 2013, Jen Jack Gieseking held a PhD in environmental psychology. Her work as an urban cultural geographer and environmental psychologist examines the everyday co-productions of space and identity support or inhibit social, spatial, and economic justice with a special focus on sexuality and gender. S/he was working on her first book, Queer New York: Lesbians’ and Queer Women’s Geographies of Social and Spatial Justice in New York City, 1983-2008. Jack then served as the Project Manager for JustPublics@365, a partnership between The Graduate Center of the City University of New York and the Ford Foundation that rethinks scholarly communication in the digital era.
Jack is co-editor of People, Place, and Space: Key Readings Across the Disciplines, with William Mangold, Cindi Katz, Setha Low, and Susan Saegert. S/he has published in Area, Qualitative Inquiry, Journal of Urban Studies, and Journal of Social Issues. Jack has held fellowships with Alexander von Humboldt German Chancellor Fellow; The Center for Place, Culture, and Politics; The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies; and the Woodrow Wilson Women’s Studies Dissertation Fellows Program. S/he can be found at jgieseking.org and @jgieseking.
Jack is especially thankful to Jim Wilson, Benjamin Gillespie, Kalle Westerling, Emily Sherwood, Maggie Galvan, Gregory T. Donovan, and everyone cited on this site for their work and insights that helped make this Seminar in the City possible.