Jessica graduated magna cum laude from Beloit College in 2001 with a BA in Sociology and Art History. After a few years working in diverse occupations, including labor and community organizing and pizza delivery, Jessica came to Indiana University in 2004, earned her MA in Sociology in 2006, and is currently a PhD student. She is engaged in research projects looking at attitudes toward immigrants in several national contexts, support for multiculturalism in Western Europe, art and knowledge production, and the world city system. In future research, she looks forward to researching stasis and change in family policy in EU member nations, with a particular interest in how family policy has been shaped by the transitions from communism, to post-communism, to EU membership in Central and Eastern European countries. In her free time, she reassures her dogs that they are the center of her life.