Jessica Lowen

I investigate religiously motivated, gender-based social movements in North America and Eastern Europe. My dissertation, which is based on ethnographic fieldwork in and around the city of Detroit, follows former-sex-workers-turned-born-again-Christians who are attempting to inspire religious revival and eradicate human trafficking at sites where sex is sold. Through my public scholarship projects and my community-based approach to university teaching and learning, I engage tools of Anthropology to support improvements in inter-agency collaborations and harm reduction programs for individuals experiencing sexual exploitation. 

Education: 

Ph.D. A.B.D. Linguistic Anthropology, University of Michigan
M.A. Anthropology, University of Oregon
B.A. Anthropology & Spanish, Whitman College (with distinction) 

Current Projects: 

Good Girls, Bad Acts: Religious Revival in Detroit's Sex Industry (PI)
U-M GEL: Gender-based violence Engaged Learning group (Co-Founder)
U-M Detroit School Rackham Interdisciplinary Workshop (Co-Coordinator)
UNITE Michigan: Understanding provider Networks by Identifying services for victims of human Trafficking and sexual Exploitation in Michigan (PI)

Fellowships and Grants (selected):

Wenner Gren Foundation Anthropology Dissertation Grant
Rackham Grant for Public Scholarship (formerly Arts of Citizenship), University of Michigan
Institute for Research on Women and Gender, Community of Scholars 
Center for the Education of Women, Towsley Scholar
Foreign Language/Area Studies Fellowship (Poland)
  U-M Center for Russia & EE Studies / US Department of Education 

Languages: 

Polish (Intermediate)
Spanish (Advanced) 
English (Native Fluency) 

Courses Designed and Taught as Instructor of Record: 

Sex, Work and Trafficking in Anthropological Perspective
University of Michigan (Anthrcul 298.202)

Anthropology of Sexuality
University of Oregon (Anth 165) 

Courses Taught/Supported as TA/GSI: 

Medical Anthropology (U-M Anthrcul 344)
Women's Reproductive Health (U-M Nursing and Women's Studies)
Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic (U-M Nursing and Women's Studies)
Introduction to Language (U-M Linguistics 111)
Language and Discrimination (U-M Linguistics 370)
Survey of Central and East Europe (U-M CREES) 
Russia and the Successor States (U-M CREES) 
Introduction to Anthropology (U-M Anthrcul 101)
Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (UOregon)
Introduction to World Cultures (UOregon)
Language and Culture (University of Oregon) 
Gender, Sex, and the State in Latin America (UOregon)