Greetings from a new member of the FI team!
Jessica Fletcher, Futures Initiative Fellow
Hello! My name is Jessica Fletcher and I am the new Communications Director for the Futures Initiative. I will be editing the Futures Initiative newsletter, contributing to social media, and helping out with other programs as needed. I look forward to foregrounding sources of financial and intellectual support for Graduate Center students and to highlighting how social justice work at the Graduate Center is connected to the rest of New York City. Given the many obstacles facing graduate students trying to carry out their research and write their dissertations, I hope to make helpful resources easily accessible through the Futures Initiative. I also hope to highlight career paths and opportunities outside the academy, particularly in the field of public humanities.
As a scholar I aim to uncover marginalized histories of the built environment. My dissertation research focuses on the forgotten history of women reformers who built health centers for working-class immigrant mothers and children in New York City from the Progressive Era through to the New Deal. I hope to show how women have physically re-shaped cities to build networks of care and to explore how working-class people have experienced urban space.
In addition to my research, I have taught at CUNY colleges, starting at Lehman College and more recently working at City College’s Spitzer School of Architecture. I greatly enjoy working with undergraduates and for public colleges and I appreciate the Futures Initiative’s dedication to innovative pedagogical techniques. I look forward to supporting the Futures Initiative team during the upcoming year!