Jennifer Heller
- Ph.D., English, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
- M.A., English, Ohio State University
- B.A., English/Spanish, Cornell College
Jennifer Heller serves as the dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication. She leads the college with a focus on creating opportunities for collaborative work for faculty and students alike.
In addition to this role, Heller teaches in the English program, where she offers courses in early modern literature, Shakespeare, drama and first-year writing. In all the classes she teaches, she helps students connect learning to real-world questions and problems. As a result, students cultivate empathy and explore diverse perspectives while developing the skills of analysis and argument.
Her research focuses on questions of material culture and gender identity in the early modern period; she also studies contemporary drama. She has just completed an article on the genre of the mother's advice book for The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Early Modern Women's Writing. Her most recent published articles are "Reading Wrecks of History and the Harley Family Narrative," which appeared in The Seventeenth Century and "To Follow Pleasure's Sway: Atomism in Sarah Ruhl's The Clean House," which appeared in Modern Drama.
Heller has been honored with the Raymond Bost Distinguished Professor Award, given annually to honor an LR faculty member for outstanding teaching and mentorship, and the Faculty Scholar Award, which is presented to the faculty member who has made the greatest contribution to his/her discipline during the academic year.