Jessie Male
- Teaching Assistant Professor
Jessie Male is a nonfiction writer and teacher-scholar with specializations in Disability Studies and Memoir. She has an MFA in Memoir from Hunter College and an MA and PhD in English from Ohio State, where she completed her dissertation, Disability Memoir: A Study in Pedagogy and Practice. This work--the basis of her current book project-- explores the writing and teaching of Disability Memoir by merging personal narrative with literary, rhetorical, and pedagogical analysis. From 2022-2024, Jessie was the Postdoctoral Associate in Disability Studies through the Writing Institute here at the University of Pittsburgh. Jessie's scholarly and interdisciplinary work appears in Lateral, Peithos, Palaver Journal, Constellations, and Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Writing, amongst many other print and online publications. As an educator, she's developed Disability Studies curriculum for face-to-face courses and online platforms, and she's been featured in Inside Higher Ed for her work in this area. In addition to her work in academia, Jessie is a vintage clothing seller, a rescue-dog mom, and donut connoisseur.
Education & Training
- BA, Creative Writing, Oberlin College, 2005
- MFA, Nonfiction (Memoir), Hunter College, 2011
- PhD, English (Disability Studies), The Ohio State University, 2021
Representative Publications
“Deconstructing The Body Papers : Multimodal Memoir as Feminist Archival Practice” Peitho Journal vol. 27, no. 2, winter 2025. Online “How Do You Grieve During an Apocalypse?” Lateral: Journal of the Cultural Studies Association vol. 11, no. 2, fall 2022. Online. “Teaching Lucy Grealy’s ‘Mirrorings’ and the Importance of Disability Studies Pedagogy in Composition Classrooms” Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies vol. 6, no.1, fall 2019. Online.