Professional Summary
I am a Postdoctoral Fellow in Literary and Cultural Studies in the UC English Department. I received my PhD in 2025 from Boston University, where I wrote my dissertation on the epistemological potential of abortion narratives in American literature before the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling. My research continues to center reproduction broadly and abortion specifically, thinking through literature's potential to unsettle the narratives and knowledges upon which we have come to rely to understand abortion as a medical, legal, ethical, emotional, and cultural phenomenon. My work is theoretically motivated by and deeply indebted to queer theory, affect theory, and gender studies.
Education
PhD: Boston University Boston, MA, 2025 (English and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies)
BA: Loyola University Chicago Chicago, IL, 2018 (English and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies )
Publications
Peer Reviewed Publications
Jena DiMaggio (2026. ) Abortion Epistemology: Ambivalence in the Abortion Plot in Modern Literature .Journal of Modern Literature, ,
Jena DiMaggio (2023. ) “You don’t feel anything?": The Cold War, Family Affect, and Reproductive Politics in Black Widow .Australasian Journal of Popular Culture, , 12 (1 ) ,49