Jennifer N. Fish is a social documentarian with a focus on migration, women’s labor, and human rights. She is a Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Old Dominion University, a photographer,  and a Fulbright Scholar. Her ethnographic research forms the foundation of five books, a series of documentary films, numerous journal articles, and commissioned organizational reports. For the past 24 years, Dr. Fish has worked with migrant domestic workers’ organizations throughout the world. Her award-winning book,  Domestic Workers of the World Unite!:

A Global Movement for Dignity and Human Rights (New York University Press) chronicles the achievement of the first United Nations policy to protect domestic workers through the accounts of global women activists. She is the biographer of the first president of the International Domestic Workers Federation and acclaimed human rights leader, Myrtle Witbooi.

Dr. Fish’s focus on social justice is largely informed by over twenty five years of research and advocacy experience in South Africa, where she worked on human rights, social justice, and education platforms that inform her first three books. She has taken part in South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission process, and contributed research to the United Nations University, the International Labour Organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Grandmothers Against Poverty and AIDS, and a range of nongovernmental, research, and philanthropic organizations. Dr. Fish is a member of the Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) policy-research network, where she serves as a research consultant. Her work has been funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada, the Centre for Global Social Policy at the University of Toronto, and the US Ambassador’s HIV/AIDS Community Grant.  As a public sociologist, her research supports human rights causes, women't organizing, and social justice movements worldwide.

Jennifer N. Fish has delivered lectures, guest talks, keynote addresses, discussions, and workshops to policy organizations, governments, nonprofits, universities, research institutions, unions, museums and secondary schools in several countries throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. Her public addresses bring evidence-based research, visual imagery, and narrative accounts to a range of topics and audiences. Dr. Fish has organized international speaking tours with social justice leaders, public officials, artists, and activists. Her expertise has informed National Public Radio discussions, government legislation, United Nations’ policies, and media coverage of human rights priorities worldwide.

SELECTED PUBLIC ADDRESSES

• Leah Tutu International Symposium (co-organizer), Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation
• International Labour Organization, United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland
• Migration Policy Institute Workshop, Washington DC
• Arbetarrörelsens Arkiv och Bibliotek, Labor Movement Archives and Library, Stockholm Sweden
• Centre for Global Social Policy, University of Toronto, Canada
• Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy
• American University College of Arts and Sciences and Project South: Institute for the Elimination of Poverty and Genocide. Washington DC
• Mansfield Institute for Social Justice and Transformation, Roosevelt University and Campus Compact. Chicago, Illinois
• International Women’s Day Public Event, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
• Women, War and Peace PBS Series, National Public Radio and the College of William and Mary Williamsburg, Virginia
• Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
• University of the Western Cape Social Law Project and the Black Sash. Cape Town, South Africa
• University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa
• Kigali Institute of Education. Kigali, Rwanda
• Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities, Richmond, Virginia
• Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, Virginia
• American Association of University Women

Jennifer N. Fish is Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at Old Dominion University.  She has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in sociology and international studies for the past twenty years. Her pedagogy is informed by a commitment to take students into the world and to teach beyond the boundaries of disciplines and classrooms. As a public sociologist, she centers her teaching on community-based research and global service-learning. For over a decade, Dr. Fish has led global immersion courses in South Africa, Senegal, Nepal, Haiti, and Rwanda. She is a leading faculty member in the Every Campus a Refuge national movement.  From these immersion experiences, her students have published substantial research projects, refined their skills in advocacy, investigation, writing, diplomacy, cross-cultural competency, and civic participation.

GLOBAL IMMERSION COURSES