
Biography
Areas of Specialization
20th-century American film and literature; ethnic and gender cultural studies; Asian American studies
Activities and Interests
I am a teaching professor in the English Department at the University of Washington, where I specialize in teaching writing and exploring ideas about identity, history, emotion, and storytelling. I also just finished my second term with the Humanities Washington Speakers Bureau, which sends publicly engaged knowledge makers of all kinds throughout the state to host civic-minded discussions. I toured my talk, "The Country that Fiction Built" for the 2019-2021 season; and for 2021-2023, my talk was "What Laughter Tells Us: Asian Americans, Comedy, and Belonging."
My research interests focus on studying the mobilization of race and gender in creating narratives of national belonging. My archival research is on American cultural productions about Asians in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, when the United States stood ready to translate its economic might into global political power. I am currently interested in the representation of Asian Americans as the refracted expression of doubts about American cultural vitality.
My pedagogical interests are in giving students opportunities to think about the place of literature and writing in a digital age. Why does literature and cultural production matter in spaces beyond the academy? How do mediums of expression affect with whom we empathize (and not) in imagining and defining our communities?
Research
Research Advised
- Merzamie (Mimi) Cagaitan, "Behind the Veils of Industry: The Filipina Mail-Order Bride as the Ultimate Western Male Fantasy," 2013.
- Merzamie (Mimi) Cagaitan, "Soft Slips of Flesh: The Female Body as a Place of Sexual Violence and Site of Economic, Social, and Cultural Exchanges," 2012.
- Jon Volkman, "Through the Eyes of the Mongoose: The Intent of Audience," 2012.
Courses Taught
Winter 2026
Autumn 2025
Spring 2025
Winter 2025
Autumn 2024
Spring 2024
Winter 2024
Autumn 2023
Spring 2023
Winter 2023
Autumn 2022
Spring 2022
Winter 2022
Autumn 2021
Spring 2021
Engl 257 Asian-American Literature
Engl 300 Reading Major Texts
Engl 302 Critical Practice
Engl 381 Advanced Expository Writing