Biography
Adjunct Professor Joseph Jenkins joined the then Department of Education in 2006. He conducts research in the School; teaches in the UC Irvine Law School and Department of English, as well as the School of Education; and publishes on inheritance law as an important framework for law, culture, and education.
Dr. Jenkins brings to UC Irvine his rich background in law and literature, critical theory, political theology, translation, theater, and language arts pedagogy. One of his research projects concerns language arts pedagogy for minority students; Dr. Jenkins has founded here and directed for four years a high school writing and performance project called “Theater of Translation” (TOT). TOT brings groups of UCI students to high schools with primarily Latino student bodies; writing and performance companies are established, which draw upon the high school students’ experiences at the crossroads of different languages and cultures. TOT provides an engaging and emotionally positive environment, where Latino students practice writing, both in English and in Spanish, with self-determined aims. The object is to motivate as well as empower these high school students’ language-arts development, while at the same time raising their college aspirations.
Dr. Jenkins received his Bachelor’s and Juris Doctor degrees from UC Berkeley. His Ph.D. in Comparative Literature was awarded at UCLA. Dr. Jenkins’ monograph, Inheritance Law and Political Theology in Shakespeare and Milton: Election and Grace in Early Modern Literature and Beyond, was published by Routledge/Ashgate in 2013. He has also edited two special issues for the Cardozo Law School journal Law and Literature: What Should Inheritance Law Be? (20:2, 2008); and, with Paul Saint-Amour and Robert Spoo, Futures of Fair Use (2013: 25:1). He is a member of the California State Bar and has had several funded research stays with the Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung in Berlin.
Adjunct Professor Joseph Jenkins joined the then Department of Education in 2006. He conducts research in the School; teaches in the UC Irvine Law School and Department of English, as well as the School of Education; and publishes on inheritance law as an important framework for law, culture, and education.
Dr. Jenkins brings to UC Irvine his rich background in law and literature, critical theory, political theology, translation, theater, and language arts pedagogy. One of his research projects concerns language arts pedagogy for minority students; Dr. Jenkins has founded here and directed for four years a high school writing and performance project called “Theater of Translation” (TOT). TOT brings groups of UCI students to high schools with primarily Latino student bodies; writing and performance companies are established, which draw upon the high school students’ experiences at the crossroads of different languages and cultures. TOT provides an engaging and emotionally positive environment, where Latino students practice writing, both in English and in Spanish, with self-determined aims. The object is to motivate as well as empower these high school students’ language-arts development, while at the same time raising their college aspirations.
Dr. Jenkins received his Bachelor’s and Juris Doctor degrees from UC Berkeley. His Ph.D. in Comparative Literature was awarded at UCLA. Dr. Jenkins’ monograph, Inheritance Law and Political Theology in Shakespeare and Milton: Election and Grace in Early Modern Literature and Beyond, was published by Routledge/Ashgate in 2013. He has also edited two special issues for the Cardozo Law School journal Law and Literature: What Should Inheritance Law Be? (20:2, 2008); and, with Paul Saint-Amour and Robert Spoo, Futures of Fair Use (2013: 25:1). He is a member of the California State Bar and has had several funded research stays with the Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung in Berlin.
