Jennifer Gerstel, Assistant Professor, English
Degrees: B.A., Tufts University; M.A. Northeastern University; Ph.D., University of Toronto

Jennifer Gerstel's primary research on connections between the history of science and nineteenth-century British fiction was sparked by an undergraduate degree in philosophy from Tufts University, where she studied Darwin with Daniel Dennett. Her Ph.D. dissertation focused on Darwin's theory of sexual selection and its influence on Victorian novelists such as George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Thomas Hardy. Professor Gerstel has presented her research at numerous academic conferences, including the Modern Language Association, the Northeast Victorian Studies Association, the Nineteenth Century Studies Conference, and the British Women Writers Conference. She has also published work on the intersection of literature, politics, and music theory, specifically the work of the twentieth-century Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich.

Jennifer Gerstel taught at the University of Toronto, Centennial College in Scarborough, Ontario, and Boston University before joining the faculty at Lasell in 2003. She enjoys the strong focus on teaching and learning in small classes that Lasell provides and the opportunity to interact with students both in and out of the classroom. Designing and teaching courses that excite students about writing and reading is what motivates her as a teacher, as does the challenge of showing students the relevance of literature and the humanities to their daily lives.