Jennifer Wilson

Bio

Dr. Jennifer Wilson is a distinguished scholar specializing in 19th-century Russian literature, with a particular focus on the nexus of sexuality and radical political thought. She is currently a contributing writer at The New Yorker and has previously written for The New York Times Book Review. In 2023, she received the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Book Reviewing from the National Book Critics Circle.

As a Provost Postdoctoral Fellow at Penn, Dr. Wilson was affiliated with the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. Under the mentorship of Dr. Ilya Vinitsky, she conducted significant research on the politics of abstinence in 19th-century Russian literature. Her work, titled “Radical Chastity: The Politics of Abstinence in Late 19th Century Russian Literature,” explores how radical political activists in Russia adopted chastity as a means of distinguishing themselves from bourgeois society.

Dr. Wilson’s reporting, commentary, and criticism have appeared in numerous prestigious publications, including The New York Review of Books, Harper’s, The Atlantic, Vulture, Bookforum, The Nation, The Paris Review, Frieze, Rest of World, Lux, and others¹. She has also appeared on podcasts like Time To Say Goodbye and the podcast of The New York Times Book Review.