Jenna Tonn

Associate Professor of the Practice, Director of Undergraduate Studies

Profile

Professor Tonn teaches courses on the history of science, technology, and engineering. Her research focuses on the social and cultural history of technical knowledge, with a specific interest in women and gender in STEM fields. Currently, Professor Tonn is working on a book, Boys in the Lab: Masculinity and the Rise of the American Life Sciences, about the relationship between manliness, experimental biology, and feelings of belonging in modern science. Her research specialties include histories of women, gender, and sexuality in modern science and technology; the interplay between engineers and engineering practices and the infrastructure of everyday life; and the relationship between design, technology, and justice.  

Professor Tonn joined the Department of Engineering after four years of teaching interdisciplinary courses at Boston College as a Core Fellow. She has collaborated with faculty from around Boston College to design and teach a number of Core Complex Problems and Enduring Questions courses, including: “Making the Modern World: Design, Ethics, and Engineering,” “Science, Technology, and American Society,” “Who Are You? The Science and Sociology of Self,” and “Nature on Exhibit: From Sea Monsters to SeaWorld.” Hallmarks of Professor Tonn’s history-forward interdisciplinary teaching style involve integrating technology and quantitative methods into the history classroom, co-teaching with faculty from engineering and the natural sciences, and designing collaborative, multidisciplinary group projects that encourage students to thoughtfully and critically produce new knowledge about the world around them. She is committed to incorporating reflective practices into the classroom as important opportunities for inclusive learning and student formation. Prior to coming to Boston College, Professor Tonn received her Ph.D. in History of Science from Harvard University and her B.A. and M.A. from Stanford University. Professor Tonn also has a courtesy appointment in the History Department.

Selected Publications

  • Tonn, J., Shields, B., Vohskuhl, A., Heaty, R., “Pedagogical Choices in Navigating and Teaching Sociotechnical Landscapes in Engineering Education,” American Society of Engineering Education Annual Conference 2025.
  • Tonn, J., “Visions of the Academic Workplace: Ruth Hubbard and the Gendered Dimensions of Space in the Harvard Biological Laboratories,” Invited paper for Centaurus special issue, Academic Workspaces as Site of Production, Adaptation, and Circulation of Knowledge, edited by Thomas Brandt, Mattias Bäckström, Ellen Grav, Annette Lykknes, and Magne Brekke Rabben (forthcoming)
  • Tonn, J., & Hira, A. (2024, June), Engineering as Conflict: A Framing for Liberal Engineering Education Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--47271
  • Tonn, J., “Forging Independent Lives in Science: Gender, Class, and Sexuality among Women in Zoology,” Invited submission to the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society volume on “Women in Science: Achievements and Barriers” (forthcoming) 
  • Tonn, J., “Experimenting with Science and Technology in American Society,” in Mary Crane, David Quigley, and Andy Boynton, eds, Curriculum by Design: Innovation and the Liberal Arts Core (New York: Fordham Univ. Press), pp. 82-103.
  • M.-I. Carnasciali, A. Hira and J. Tonn, “Understanding Student Experience and Motivation in a New Human-Centered Engineering Program – Insights from the First Cohort,” 2022 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2022, pp. 1-5.
  • Krones, J., & Tonn, J., & Powell, R. C. (2021, August), An integrated engineering/history/ethics first-year experience at Boston College, Paper presented at 2021 First-Year Engineering Experience Conference. 10.18260/1-2--38382
  • Krones, J. S., & Tonn, J. A., & Powell, R. C. (2021, July), Integrating History and Engineering in the First-Year Core Curriculum at Boston College, Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--37360
  • Tonn, J., “Domesticated Animals on Display at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 1900-1928,” Endeavor 43 (1-2): 32–36. 
  • Tonn, J., “Laboratory of Domesticity: Gender, Race, and Science at the Bermuda Biological Station for Research, 1903-1930,” History of Science 57 (2019): 231-259. 
  • Tonn, J., “Extralaboratory Life: Gender Politics and Experimental Biology at Radcliffe College, 1894-1910,” Gender & History 29 (August 2017): 329-58.