American Studies

Hailing from the northernmost region of Illinois, Jenna joins OSU-Cascades by way of the Great Lakes and the Bluegrass. At both the University of Kentucky, and at Illinois State University where she completed her MA in 2010, Jenna taught first-year writing, creative writing, and literature. At the University of Kentucky she was awarded the College of Arts and Sciences Certificate for Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award in 2014, and in 2015, she received the inaugural Kentucky Writers Fellowship for Innovative Poetry from Louisville's Baltic Writers Residency. She is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships from the Acorn Equality Fund for LGBT researchers, the University of Kentucky Women's Club, and the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Jenna's teaching and research interests reside at the crossroads of writing pedagogy, environment, and creativity. She is interested in the linkages between composition pedagogy and creative writing pedagogy in space and place, often deploying her background in creative writing in the first-year writing classroom as a means of invention, research, and writing practice. Learn more about Jenna at her website, www.jennalgoldsmith.com.