Jennifer Sdunzik

As an interdisciplinary scholar, she uses a combination of archival, geospatial (GIS), and ethnographic research methods to understand legacies of cross-cultural issues at local and global scales. Her first book, The Geography of Hate: The Great Migration through Small-Town America (University of Illinois Press, 2023), investigates how the small-town Midwest engaged the demographic and cultural shifts that came with the Great Migration in the twentieth century, uncovering a plethora of longstanding exclusionary attitudes and policies in Indiana. Her scholarly contributions in the fields of race and ethnic studies, partnerships, and education, have been published in a variety of interdisciplinary and education journals, including Business Strategy and Development, Social Education, and Research in Educational Policy and Management. She has extensive experience implementing and managing stakeholder engagement initiatives and encouraging intercultural dialogues towards fostering societal wellbeing at local and global scales.

Jennifer loves languages and cultures, evidenced by the fact that she speaks five languages and has lived across three continents. It was also through her time in India that she discovered her passion for earrings – the bigger and brighter, the better.