Dr. Jane Palmer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Justice, Law & Criminology. She is also is the founder and former faculty director of the American University Community-Based Research Scholars program. She currently serves as the faculty advisor for the undergraduate certificate in community-based research at American University.
Research interests:
- Barriers to help-seeking;
- Transformative justice and anti-carceral responses to gender-based violence;
- Civil legal needs of survivors of sexual violence;
- Advancing anti-oppressive research methods, and
- Community-based participatory research.
Current projects:
- Researcher with Trans Lifeline’s Safe Hotlines project,
- Humanities Truck fellow for a Youth Voice in DC project with DC Action, and
- Community-based researcher with the Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence on experiences of advocates of color in anti-violence organizations.
At American University, she is an Inclusive Pedagogy Fellow at AU’s Center for Teaching, Research, & Learning and as the co-chair of the Term Faculty Affairs Committee in the School of Public Affairs. She is also affiliated with the Antiracist Research and Policy Center, the Metropolitan Policy Center, the Department of Critical, Race, Gender, & Culture Studies, and the Department of Sociology.
Her external affiliations include serving as a Non-Resident Fellow in Community Engaged Methods at the Urban Institute, a Board Member (Treasurer) of the Chicago Freedom School, and a We Need Diverse Books mentee.
Before coming to AU for her Ph.D., Dr. Palmer was the executive director of a domestic violence intervention and youth violence prevention organization in St. Louis. She worked in paid and volunteer positions for more than a decade in grassroots and community-based organizations in Chicago and St. Louis as an organizer, victim advocate, prevention specialist, youth program manager, and social worker for children and families, with an emphasis on eradicating violence.