Jennifer's research focuses on how human rights categories emerge and are contested within relations of geopolitical power, colonial relations, and gendered, sexual, and racial formations. In particular, she focuses on labor exploitation, forced labor, and human trafficking and how the recognition of harm, such as gender and sex-based violence, can collude with systems of state and colonial violence. She works within the transnational contexts of Russia, East Europe, and the U.S.
Her first book, Economies of Violence: Transnational Feminism, Postsocialism, and the Politics of Sex Trafficking (2015) is an analysis of the resurgence of global anti-trafficking discourse at the end of the Cold War. Her current work includes a book manuscript on the anti-trafficking moniker "modern day slavery" and essays on sexuality and nationalism in Russia. She is also involved in several collaborations focused on public education and social justice.
