Dr. Jessica A. Hutchins is Interim Director of the University Honors Program at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. She specializes in postcolonial literature of the Caribbean and interdisciplinary approaches to education. Her scholarship and teaching emphasize relationships between narrative, identity, and social justice. She received her PhD in Comparative Literature from Washington University (2014) and her MA in Foreign Languages and Literatures from Southern Illinois University Carbondale (2008).

From 2015-2021 she worked as Director of Curriculum and Graduate Programs in the Division of Biology & Biomedical Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine, integrating humanistic skills and concepts into STEM graduate education. In that role, she developed innovative curriculum in science communication, leadership, and career development with funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund.

She has published on racialized and gendered injustice in Caribbean literature and the application of narrative theory to the field of science communication. In a forthcoming book chapter, she describes her experience making the transition from literary research to applying humanities knowledge and skills within the context of STEM graduate education and then transitioning again to a humanities faculty position. Her works-in-progress examine fictional articulations of hybrid, creolized identity by writers from the Anglophone and Francophone Caribbean. In her spare time, Dr. Hutchins like to hike and camp, crochet, ride motorcycles, and hang out with her dog.

Contacts & Links

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jahutchins

Humanities Commons: https://hcommons.org/members/jahutchins/

ORCID Profile: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8638-1382

Dr. Hutchins CV [pdf]