Jennifer Hamilton

Jennifer Hamilton, assistant professor of legal studies and anthropology, received her B.A. in anthropology and English literature (McGill University) and her Ph.D. in anthropology (Rice University).

Her interests include social studies of law, science, and biomedicine, theories of culture and identity, and critical race and gender studies.

She is the author of Indigeneity in the Courtroom: Law, Culture, and the Production of Difference in North American Courts. Her most recent research examines human genetic variation research and the sociocultural, legal, and ethical formations which emerge around it.

Recent and Upcoming Courses

Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
This course introduces students to the discipline of anthropology, the study of human cultures and societies. In particular, students will explore cultural anthropology's themes, concepts, and methodologies, beginning with the discipline's emergence in the United States in the early 20th century and moving into 21st century anthropological inquiries. The course will be organized around a series of basic questions: How do anthropologists ask questions? How do they conduct research? How do they make sense of the world around them? What does anthropology have to offer a world with often vexing social and political problems? What are anthropology's limitations and constraints? What might a publicly engaged anthropology look like, especially in an era of globalization? We will investigate these questions by exploring anthropological work in specific areas including new media; food and culture; the cultures of science and biomedicine; and, anthropology beyond the human.
Introduction to Medical Anthropology
This course introduces students to medical anthropology, an interdisciplinary approach exploring how humans differently define and experience life, death, illness, wellness, health, sex, and pain throughout the world and over time. We begin with classic texts in medical anthropology and ethnomedicine and shift to more contemporary work in critical medical anthropology. There will be a special focus in the course on global inequalities in health and medicine, on cross-cultural perspectives on pain and suffering, and on understanding biomedicine as a cultural system.
Postcolonial Feminist Science Studies
Science was a central force in the ideologies of colonialism and the successes of colonial expansion. Postcolonial studies suggests that this colonial legacy lives on in postcolonial nations. In what ways does this colonial legacy shape postcolonial conceptions of the state and its citizens and subject formation? We will explore recent work in postcolonial feminist science studies by examining a range of postcolonial sites and a variety of scientific disciplines. Some of the questions we will explore are: postcolonial development, bioprospecting and biopiracy, pharmaceutical testing in postcolonial contexts, colonial sexual science and the history of sexuality, surrogacy, the rise of genomic sovereignty in postcolonial nations, GMOs and industrialized agriculture, and climate change. Throughout the course, students will engage with postcolonial feminist critiques of scientific epistemologies (theories of knowledge) and the universalizing metaphysics (theories of existence/reality/nature) they engender. This class will be team taught by Professors Jennifer Hamilton, Angie Willey, and Banu Subramaniam. We will combine with another section of the class based at UMass. Classes will meet at UMass from 4-6:30pm.
Contested Bodies: Race, Sex, and the Cultures of Biology
Using primary and secondary materials as well as documentaries and feature films, this course explores conceptualizations and representations of race and sex in various domains of scientific thought. We begin by looking at the histories of race and sex in Western science. We will examine gendered and racialized pathologies, such as hysteria and drapetomania, and consider how scientific thought intersected with larger political and economic movements. We will then move into a discussion of the uses of race and sex in the contemporary life sciences. Why is the pharmaceutical industry developing drugs geared toward different racial groups? How have advances in reproductive technologies challenged or reinforced our understandings of our bodies? Why and how is sexuality a key site of scientific debate? Finally, how has the genomic age reshaped (or reinforced) our understandings of race, sex, and sexuality?
Ethnographic Methods: The Cultures of Law, Science, and Medicine
This course introduces Division II students to ethnographic methods through the specific study of the powerful institutions of law, science, and medicine. Through the critical reading and analysis of ethnographic texts, students will learn about the substantive areas of political and legal anthropology, science studies, and critical medical anthropology. Students will also build a methodological toolkit for investigating complex social problems in the areas of law, science, and medicine. Specific topics of investigation include human rights and humanitarian interventions; organ transplantation and the exchange of biological materials; global pharmaceuticals; and multispecies ethnography. The course will culminate in final mini-ethnographic research projects designed by students. Enrollment limited to 15 Division II students.