I live in Baltimore’s historic neighborhood of Bolton Hill with my husband Kwamina, our son Benji Eyiku, and a giant three-legged cat we call “The Scamp”. While South Africa has long been my main second home, these days I’m found more often in Ghana. I work across English, Russian, Afrikaans, Shona, and Fante literary and intellectual traditions, and I am always glad to hear from other unorthodox comparatists. In addition to my main field of African literature, I have published on novel theory, literature and philosophy, comparative method, and Russian realism. I am also Senior Editor of ELH, and Reviews Editor for the Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry. 

In 2021, I was named an Andrew Carnegie Fellow. You can read more about my fellowship research on the Gold Coast statesman and writer J.E. Casely Hayford here. 

Aside from academic books and essays, I write for a wide range of public-facing venues. You can find links to that work on my “Other Writing” page.

Feel free to contact me at jjacks98@jhu.edu. 

(Photo credit: Rachel Smith Photography.)