Janet Jakobsen is Professor of Women's Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University and director of the Barnard Center for Research on Women. She is also a member of Barnard's multidisciplinary academic program in women's studies and an affiliate of the program in human rights.

Dr. Jakobsen teaches such courses as "Feminist Theories," "Theorizing Women's Activism," "Queer Theories," and "Religion, Gender, and Violence."

Her research interests include religion, gender, and sexuality in American public life; social movements and feminist alliance politics; feminist and queer ethics; and global issues of economics and violence. She is currently working on a book project, The Value of Ethics: Sex, Secularism, and Social Movements in a Global Economy.

Before entering academia, Professor Jakobsen was a policy analyst and lobbyist in Washington, D.C