Jenna Magnuski (she/her/hers)

Track: Public History

Areas of Historical Interest: Chattel slavery, Native American and Indigenous Studies, Early American Republic, Local History

Jenna grew up in the Chicago area. She has a BA in US History from Framingham State University, and an MA in Student Affairs in Higher Education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. After graduating, she worked in Residential Life for ten years before having two kids and taking a step back. While in undergrad, Jenna interned at the Little Compton Historical Society in Rhode Island. She started working there again once her youngest was old enough for her to be away. Her work there reinvigorated her passion for history and drove her to explore MA programs in history.

In her free time, Jenna enjoys crafting, Tabletop role-playing games & board games, photography, and community organizing & active citizenship. In addition, she is a member of the leadership collective of the History Graduate Student Association at UMass Boston.  Jenna lives with her supportive husband, their two sons, Edmund and Oliver, and her in-laws in a 1904 farmhouse. They have a cat named Arya and a black dog named Snowflake. With everyone’s different schedules, the house only usually gets a few hours of sleep each night! 

Favorite Historical Story: “Calvin Coolidge was sitting next to a young woman at a dinner party. She said she’d bet her friends that she could get the notoriously reserved Coolidge to say more than 3 words. Without looking at her, he said, “you lose”.”