Degrees: PHD, 2007, Pennsylvania St Univ Univ Park; MPHIL, 2000, Univ Oslo; BA, 1996, Univ Oslo

Bio:

Dr. Jensen received her Ph.D. in Geography from the Pennsylvania State University in 2007. She has an M.Phil. degree and a Bachelor degree in Human Geography from the University of Oslo (Norway). Before she started her doctoral studies at Penn State she worked for the immigration authorities in Norway and for a non-governmental organization helping orphan children in Bangladesh getting an education. She has conducted research in Bangladesh intermittently the last ten years, increasingly focusing on the lived experiences of children from low-income households, including their work and access to education. Her doctoral research focused on children who work as domestics (i.e. servants) for wealthier families in Dhaka, Bangladesh. In particular she focused on the cultural context of the children's relationship with employers and the prospects for increasing their quality of life through access to public and semi-public spaces where they can develop their social network and seek help in case of neglect and abuse. Dr. Jensen also explored the work that governmental and non-governmental organizations do to help working children in general, and child domestics in particular. She uses different qualitative methodologies in her research, such as discourse analysis, participant observation, and critical ethnography.