Jennifer C. Lena

Jennifer C. Lena (1974-) was born in Providence, Rhode Island. She earned her B.A. (1996) as a dual major in English and Sociology/Anthropology from Colgate University, and a Ph.D. from Columbia University (2003). She has worked at Vanderbilt University, Princeton University, Barnard College, the Berlin School of Creative Leadership (Steinbeis), and Columbia University. Her academic research focuses on classification systems, specifically the conditions that facilitate the proliferation or contraction of categories into which art works are sorted. Banding Together: How Communities Create Genres in Popular Music is her first book, and was published by Princeton University Press in early 2012. Her second book, Entitled: Discriminating Tastes and the Expansion of the Arts, was published September 3, 2019. Her third book, with co-authors, Measuring Culture (Columbia University Press) was published in 202.