Jane Desmond

Professor Jane Desmond is one of those people who you would want on a trivia team. Starting as a dancer and choreographer, Jane’s work has moved into academia and has covered a range of fascinating areas. This interview reveals just how much dance, as a practice, has informed Jane’s work in other fields and on other topics. Jane is now a professor in Anthropology and Gender and Women's Studies, and Co-founder, and current Director, of the International Forum for U.S. Studies, a center in International Programs. Her research covers topics including embodiment, display, and social identity, as well as the transnational dimensions of U.S. Studies. Her work includes research on human and animal relations and gender and sexuality, which feature in this interview. I was interested in talking to Jane as a result of her work looking at the role of dance in society and the ways in which dance can be used to question the status quo. Before the interview, we exchanged a number of emails about the topic of our conversation and the below text comes from one of our exchanges. It is included as an extension of our conversation.