Jenna Smith, a 21-year-old New Jersey native and Rhodes Scholar, has made significant contributions to justice advocacy. Graduating from Duke University, she led the Duke Justice Project and co-taught a course on correctional systems. In her work with inmates in the Mississippi Delta and interning with the Innocence Project, she focuses on racial and LGBTQ+ issues. Smith describes her political consciousness shaped during the Trump era, emphasizing that her queerness, Blackness, and experiences shape her advocacy for marginalized communities and systemic fairness.
"My entire political consciousness took place and now is still taking place in the Trump era," she says.
"All identities are political, particularly those more heavily subject to marginalization. ... So my queerness informs my political identity," Smith says.
"Spending time in the Deep South awakened me politically and personally," she says.
"When I am in blue-leaning cities surrounded by red areas, and..."
Collection
[
|
...
]