Jessica S. Samuel

Boston University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences

Jessica S. Samuel is a PhD candidate in the American & New England Studies Program at Boston University. She holds a BA in both anthropology and African American studies from Wesleyan University as well as a Master in Education from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. In St. Louis, Jessica taught high school English and writing as a Teach for America corp member. Jessica was appointed to the Racial Imbalance Advisory Council for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in 2018 after working as an education policy fellow at the department. Currently, she studies the intersections of public education, race, and colonialism throughout the United States and the Caribbean. Her dissertation, “From Virgin Land to Virgin Islands: Conserving ‘America’s Paradise,’” examines the racialized confluence of public education struggles, National Park conservation objectives, and US imperialism on the island of St. John.

Areas of Expertise

• Anthropology
• Cultural Studies
• Education
• History
• Policy
• Race and Ethnicity
• Social Inequality or Stratification
• Social Theory
• Sociology

Methodology

• Archival Methods
• Ethnographic Methods
• Interviews
• Qualitative Methods