Dr. Jacqueline Jean Jacqueline Barrios studies the global 19th century, literature, and the city, which she extends in interdisciplinary, socially engaged projects within the public humanities. Her current scholarship investigates London-Pacific trans-urban imaginaries—geographies of East Asian Pacific Rim entanglement with the British capital.
Dr. Barrios specializes in projects that connect literature and urban spaces, bringing urban histories and culture to life through interdisciplinary, socially engaged projects, initiatives and courses within the public humanities. The centerpiece of her public humanities work is her founding of LitLabs, a public humanities project hub fusing visual performing arts and site-specific research with the study of literary texts, in order to document, animate and uplift the life-worlds of communities who interpret them. LitLabs are the subject of her upcoming book project, Dear Charles Dickens, Love South (U. of Iowa Press--forthcoming), about how she centered the history and daily life of South LA teens in creative engagements with the 19c long-form novel.
Dr. Barrios also co-founded the DIGITAL SALON with UCLA’s Urban Humanities Initiative, a research program linking architecture, urban planning and humanities scholars, and she co- leads the formation of a global Urban Humanities Network for emerging scholars in the field.
Dr. Barrios holds a PhD in English from the University of California Los Angeles, a Master of English from the University of California at Irvine, a Master of Education and a BA in English from the University of California at Berkeley. She has been a veteran educator at LAUSD, where she has served as a public school teacher for many years in South Los Angeles.