jenni_l
Jenni Lehtinen
Position:
Assistant Professor
Office Phone:
(70) 5784
E-mail:
jenni.lehtinen@nu.edu.kz
Website:
CV:

Research Interest

Latin American literature, culture, and history
Cultural Studies (especially screen adaptations and soap operas)
Theories of Nationhood

Biography
Selected Publications
Courses Offered

Dr. Jenni Lehtinen is Assistant Professor of Languages, Linguistics, and Literatures in the School of Sciences and Humanities at Nazarbayev University.

Dr. Lehtinen obtained her doctorate in Latin American Literature from Wolfson College, University of Oxford in 2011. She also holds a Master of Studies degree in European Literature (Wadham College, University of Oxford), a Master of Arts degree in Screen Studies (Birmingham City University), and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and History (Queen Mary, University of London). Before joining Nazarbayev University, she lectured at the University of Oxford and worked as a Teaching Fellow at the University of Exeter.

Although born in Finland, Dr. Lehtinen has spent most of her life in Spain, the United Kingdom, and Kazakhstan. She speaks fluently English, Spanish, and Finnish, and communicates confidently in Swedish and Russian.  

Dr. Lehtinen is passionate about all things Latin American and Caribbean and hopes to introduce her NU students to the fascinating and heterogeneous culture of that part of the world. In her free time, she enjoys travelling, discovering new writers, watching telenovelas, improving her Russian, pampering her cats, and riding sports horses. 

Research

Dr. Lehtinen’s doctoral studies were funded by the prestigious Arts and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Award of Great Britain. She is the author of the monographs Narrative and National Allegory in Rómulo Gallegos’s Venezuela (MHRA, 2013), and Doña Bárbara Unleashed: From Venezuelan Plains to International Screen (Wales University Press, 2021). Dr. Lehtinen has further published numerous articles and book chapters on topics relating to film, fandom, and Hispanic literature. She is committed to helping her students to join the global academic community and recently published the book chapter titled ‘The Joker and Man in the Mirror’, which appeared in the volume Breaking Down Joker (Routledge, 2021), with two former Languages, Linguistics, and Literature majors, who are now pursuing postgraduate degrees abroad.  

 

Dr. Lehtinen’s research interests include fandom studies and screen adaptations, specifically in the Latin American context. She is particularly interested in the ‘after-life’ of canonical literary works in the era of visual cultures as well as the socio-political narratives embedded in Latin American telenovelas. Her research engages with theories of post-colonialism, nationhood, gender, and audience response.

Teaching:

Dr. Lehtinen teaches courses on Cultural Studies, Film Studies, Latin American Literature, and Spanish Language. She the founder of NU’s Spanish-language program.

Honours and Awards

  1. Seed Grant for writing a monograph on screen adaptations of Rómulo Gallegos’s Doña Bárbara, Nazarbayev University, June 2013-June 2015
  2. Stipendary Lectureship in Spanish, Magdalen College, University of Oxford, January-April 2012
  3. Arts and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Award, 2008-2011