Jennifer Wood earned her doctorate in African American and American Studies from Yale University. Her dissertation project--“The New Black: Corporeal, Sartorial and Sexual Politics in the Harlem Renaissance"--was an interrogation of the ways in which fashion and the black body were conceptualized and represented by the artists of the New Negro Movement, particularly in relation to consumption, visibility, performance, and sexuality. She has taught interdisciplinary courses on African American literature (Toni Morrison, The Harlem Renaissance, African American Literature from 1920 to the Present) and American literature (Contemporary American Literature, 1950 to the present) at Yale and Wesleyan. 

Jennifer Wood has had a career of some hybridity given her work as an instructor, academic advisor, residential and class dean, and personal counselor. As a class dean at Wesleyan, she bolsters student success in the classroom, facilitates access to academic and non-academic resources, and supports student transitions throughout the undergraduate years.  In addition to the Yale doctorate, she has earned Master's degrees in African Studies at Yale and Education at Harvard.