Scholar · Writer · Educator

Jessica
B. Burstrem, PhD

I work in the intersections among history, social justice, Indigenous and Black studies, gender studies, and popular culture, exploring how stories, movements, and representations shape cultural memory and identity.

PhD — Language, Literacy & Culture · University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 2025 ABD — English · University of Arizona MA — English & Women's Studies · University of Florida BA — English Language & Literature · University of Michigan
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Jessica B. Burstrem

"Survival pending Revolution is our immediate task and to do this we must meet the needs of the people."

— Black Panther Party

Research Interests

01

Indigenous Peoples & Social Movements

The Washington football team name change movement as a case study in modes of resistance, coalition building, and sovereignty over cultural representations.

02

Gender, Mothering & Identity

Feminist approaches to mothering sons, “nontraditional” family structures, “monster mother” myths in popular culture, and the politics of caregiving in literature and film.

03

Black Cultural Studies

Reclamation and reinterpretation of undervalued works, including Zora Neale Hurston's Seraph on the Suwanee, within feminist and cultural studies frameworks.

04

Representation & Narrative Temporality

Representation and identities; “queer time” as a lens for visioning resistance.

05

Oral History & Memory

Oral history, ethnography, and Indigenous research methodologies for documenting resistance and social justice movements. Training from UC Berkeley's Oral History Center (2022).

06

Education & Pedagogy

Teaching strategies for engagement, equity, and access, particularly for underrepresented and first-generation students; the joys and challenges of interdisciplinarity.

Selected Publications

2025

"Mentorship and the Role of the Book Reviews Editor in the Future of Scholarly Publishing"

Invited ContributionEditorial with Jessica L. Chaplain, Critical Studies in Media Communication 42.3-4, Jun-Oct 2025, pp. 173-176.

2011

"Bad Mothers"

Book Chapter Teaching Motherhood: A Collection of Post-Secondary Courses on Mothering/Motherhood, Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement, 2011, pp. 20-24.

2010

"Analyzing and Creating Visual/Spatial Arguments for a Public Audience"

Book Chapter Writing Public Lives, ed. Christopher Minnix & Carol Nowotny-Young, Hayden-McNeil, 2010, 2011, 2012.

2010

Julia Kristeva & Linda Rennie Forcey entries

Encyclopedia Entry Encyclopedia of Mothering, ed. Andrea O'Reilly, SAGE Publications, 2010.

2006

"The Reclamation of Zora Neale Hurston's Seraph on the Suwanee"

Invited ContributionBook Chapter Florida Studies: Proceedings of the 2005 Annual Meeting of the Florida College English Association, Cambridge Scholars Press, 2006, pp. 175–194.

Full list on CV →

From the Blog

Essay · April 2025

What the Name Change Movement Taught Us About Narrative Power

A reflection on a decade of advocacy, oral history fieldwork, and what it means when a community finally sees itself represented truthfully.

Read essay → Teaching · February 2025

First-Generation Students and the Hidden Curriculum of Academic Writing

Years of teaching composition to under-resourced students have taught me that the rules of academic writing are rarely explicitly taught—only penalized.

Read essay → Research · November 2024

On Monster Mothers: Rereading the Myth in 2024

How popular culture continues to weaponize the "bad mother" trope against women who resist convention—and why that matters now more than ever.

Read essay →
All Essays

Get in Touch

I welcome inquiries about my research, potential collaborations, and speaking engagements. I'm also happy to connect with students and fellow scholars of resistance, cultural studies, and history.

Email jessica.burstrem@gmail.com Academic Curriculum Vitae Previous Blog Feminist Mother
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