Name:   Jennifer LJ Heinert—I try to go by “Jen,” but I answer to “Jennifer” and “Jenny,” too. 

LJ stands for “Lee Jordan,” my middle name and maiden name.  I didn’t feel I could give up either name when I married; my dad has the name suffix “III,” and as the oldest of both his daughters I wanted to carry on the family name—there are not a lot of “the thirds” in the world anymore. 

Campus: UW—Rock County (aka “U Rock”): Home of the Rattlers, thank goodness (we used to be the Unicorns)! 

Home base:      Muskego, Wisconsin:  We were recently put on the map by a CBS news team that mistakenly thought it was a good idea to drive onto the thin ice of our lake with their news truck while doing a story about “the dangers of thin ice.”  I love irony.   

Research:       My primary research areas are African-American literature and Twentieth-Century American writers.  I am in the process of revising my dissertation, Narrative Conventions and Race in the Novels of Toni Morrison, for publication with Routledge.  I have a few ideas for future projects, but everything is on hold until this manuscript is due in August. 

Reading:        I was worried graduate school would kill my love of reading, but in the last year I have read so many books I’ve lost count.  I love to scour Half-Price Books and buy random paperbacks that “look good.”  My best blind pick of last year was The Turtle Warrior by Mary Ellis (a Wisconsin writer).  Recent reads include The Thirteenth Tale, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, Bee Season, The Nanny Diaries, The Cider House Rules, Love in the Time of Cholera, The Pact, Read This and Tell Me What it Says, and Vinegar Hill.  If you have any recommendations for contemporary American fiction, please send them my way. 

Jen the person: I am extremely emotive: I laugh out loud (or cry, depending on the subject matter) when I read, watch TV, and go to movies.  I don’t even realize I’m doing it.  

I am addicted to podcasts.  A Way with Words and This American Life are my favorites.  I can’t seem to find enough of them to last me my entire week, so I am planning on hoarding over the summer so I will have a lot to keep me company during the next school year.

I try to complete at least one crossword puzzle a day; I feel it helps me stave off completely becoming a nutty professor.

It is strange to admit it, but cleaning and organizing are two of my favorite pastimes.  I let things get unorganized just so I can spend time organizing them (which means my husband and I are a perfect match). 

I’ve been married to my high school sweetheart (“Aaawww”), Scott, for almost 7 years now.  I enjoy that his field, public accounting, is so different from mine; we get to grow with and challenge each other in interesting ways.  It amazes me that we still have so much fun together after 14 years.  You can guess which one he is in the picture below. I should preface this by noting that he loves Halloween:

Dreams & Goals: Setting goals—actually making a list of what I want to accomplish in my life—has helped me work towards things (like a PhD) and take advantage of opportunities that cross my path.  This last year was a very big year for me—finishing my doctorate, finding a tenure-track job, landing a book contract—but I’ve found that my list of professional and personal goals just keeps getting longer.  Some of the dreams and goals on my current list are being elected to the school board, writing a book on financial literacy, earning tenure, winning a teaching award, and being a parent. 

Bonus Tracks:   Extreme concentration:  You can walk into a silent room where I’m reading, tell me something extremely important, and I won’t hear a word.  In fact, I probably won’t even remember the conversation. This happens whenever I concentrate on something.  It is also why it is fairly easy to startle me.  And, since I am so emotive, I’ll scream bloody murder if you catch me off guard.    

Internal Compass:  Blindfold me and spin me around, I’ll still be able to tell you where North is.  The only place I’ve ever gotten lost in the entire world is Waukesha: I still knew where North was, but I swear the streets in that city change like the staircases in Hogwarts.

Near-supernatural Immune System: Though my squeaky performance at our Spring Department meeting might indicate otherwise, I rarely get sick—usually only once every 18 months. 

ß This is me (last summer) being very excited about moving into my first “real” office.  Right now I have a view of backhoes, bulldozers, and dump trucks out of my windows because we just started construction on our new library, Allen Hall. 

This is my faculty pic from our website à 

And this is my signature…

Jennifer LJ Heinert, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of English

Andrews Hall, 249

UW - Rock County

2909 Kellogg Avenue

Janesville, WI 53546

608.758.4937