I write for scholarly and public audiences about democracy, identity, memory, place, education, reading, and public culture. My work is grounded in American Studies and shaped by decades of reporting, teaching, archival research, and close attention to the ways people understand their communities and the institutions around them.
I began doing this work long before I called it scholarship. As a local journalist, I reported on municipal government, education, the environment, development, commercial fishing, tourism, arts and culture, and the everyday life of Jersey Shore communities while also teaching and completing graduate work in education. Those experiences continue to shape the questions I ask: how people understand places and institutions, whose stories become authoritative, and what ordinary practices can reveal about larger cultural narratives.
Selected Public Writing
““We’re going to do WHAT?”: How NaNoWriMo Has Changed the Lives of Over 700 of My Students.” The New York Times Learning Network, Jennifer Ansbach, October 4, 2012.
“How to Bring Screenwriting Into the Classroom.” Edutopia, Jennifer Ansbach, March 28, 2012.