Rachel Lee, Assistant Professor of English and Women's Studies, UCLA
Rachel Lee Rachel Lee, Associate Professor, English and Women's Studies, UCLA, specializes in Asian American literature and performance culture. She is the author of The Americas of Asian American Literature: Gendered Fictions of Nation and Transnation (Princeton University Press, 1999), which addresses current debates on the relationship among Asian American ethnic identity, national belonging, globalization, and gender. Her essays on location, territory, and critical regionalism in the context of Asian American cultural criticism have appeared in The Women's Review of Books, Cultural Critique, boundary 2, and various anthologies. Her more recent work includes an essay on women of color in relation to the institution of women's studies (Meridians, Fall 2000; reprinted in Women's Studies on Its Own: A Next Wave Reader in Institutional Change, Duke University Press), and a collection of edited essays on Asian Americans and cyberspace entitled Asian America.Net (Routledge University Press, 2003).
EDUCATION
| 1995 | Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, English Literature |
| 1993 | M.A., University of California, Los Angeles, English Literature |
| 1988 | B.A., Cornell University, English Literature, magna cum laude |
CURRENT AND PAST POSITIONS
Associate Professor of English and Women's Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, July 2000–present
Visiting Associate Professor in Humanities and Social Science, Caltech University, Pasadena, CA, January–March 2003
Assistant Professor of English and Women's Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, September 1995–June 2000
Lecturer, Asian American Studies Program, University of California, Santa Barbara, January–April, 1994
PUBLICATIONS
BOOKS
The Americas of Asian American Literature: Gendered Fictions of Nation and Transnation. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.
Co-Editor (with Sau-ling Wong), Asian America.Net: Essays in Ethnicity, Nationalism and Cyberspace. Routledge University Press, forthcoming Spring 2003.
ARTICLES
"Reading Contests and Contesting Reading: Chang Rae Lee's Ethnic New York." MELUS (forthcoming 2004).
"Notes from the (non)Field: Theorizing and Teaching 'Women of Color.'" Meridians 1.1 (Fall 2000): 85–109. Rpt. in Women's Studies on Its Own, ed. Robyn Wiegman, Duke University Press, 2002. 82–105.
"The Gendered Terms of Our Traveling Cultures," Women's Review of Books 29.5 (February 2002):13–14.
"Asian Americans' Performing Blackface, Blacks' Performing Yellowface: Costly Performances or Coalitional Enactments." Literature on the Move: Comparing Diasporic Ethnicities in Europe and the Americas. Eds. Dominique Marcais, Mark Niemeyer, Bernard Vincent, Cathy Waegner. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag C., 2002. 147–158.
"Asian American Short Fiction: An Introduction and Critical Survey." A Resource Guide to Asian American Literature. Eds. Sau-ling Cynthia Wong and Stephen H. Sumida. New York: The Modern Language Association, 2001. 252–84.
Review of Performing Asian America: Race and Ethnicity on the Contemporay Stage by Josephine Lee; Orientals: Asian Americans in Popular Culture by Robert G. Lee; and Masking Selves, Making Subjects: Japanese American Women, Identity, and the Body. Signs 26.2 (Winter 2001): 561–65.
"Interview with Gish Jen." Words Matter: Conversations with Asian American Writers. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000. 215–232.
"Failed Performances of the Nation in Gish Jen's Typical American." Navigating Islands and Continents: Conversations and Contestations in and around the Pacific vol. 17 of Literary Studies East and West. Eds. Cynthia Franklin, Ruth Hsu and Suzanne Kosanke. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2000. 63–79. "Asian American Cultural Production in Asian-Pacific Perspective." Boundary 2 26.2 (Summer 1999): 231–254.
"Asian American Literature." The Encyclopedia of American Literature. Ed. Steven Serafin. NY: Continuum Publishing Group, 1999. 50–54.
"Journalistic Representations of Asian Americans and Literary Responses, 1910–20." An Interethnic Companion to Asian American Literature. Ed. King-Kok Cheung. NY: Cambridge University Press, 1997. 249–273.
"The Erasure of Places and the Re-siting of Empire in Wendy Law-Yone's The Coffin Tree." Cultural Critique 35 (Winter 1996–97): 149–178.
"Claiming Land, Claiming Voice, Claiming Canon: Institutionalized Challenges in Maxine Hong Kingston's China Men and The Woman Warrior." Re-visioning Asian America: Locating Diversity. Eds., Soo-Young Chin, James Moy, Wendy Ng, and Gary Okihiro. Seattle: Washington State University Press, 1995. 147–159.
"Missing Peace in Toni Morrison's Sula and Beloved." African-American Review 28.4 (Winter 1994): 571–583. Rpt. in Understanding Toni Morrison's Beloved and Sula. Eds. Solomon Iyasere and Marla Iyasere. Troy, NY: Whitston Publishing Co., 2000. 277–96.
INVITED LECTURES AND PRESENTATIONS
| 2003 | "Nimble-fingered Workers, Cybertechies, and Digital Porn Stars: Asians in Cyberspace," In the Wake of a Critical Mass: New Directions in Asian American Studies Conference, University of Illinois-Urbana/Champagne. |
| 2003 | "'Where's My Parade?': Margaret Cho and the Asian American Body in Space," Loyola Marymount University; also presented at the Center for Feminist Research, University of Southern California. |
| 2002 | Keynote Lecture, "Neo-Nationalisms and Infantile Post-Citizenship." University of Indiana, Bloomington. |
| 2002 | "Mortality Rates and Histories of Loss: Qualitative Humanistic Thinking Meets Demography." Ethnicity and Population Processes: A Comparative History. California Institute of Technology. |
| 2002 | Feminist Theory, Queer Theory, Cultural Studies: Intersections," Center for the Study of Women, UCLA. |
| 2002 | "'Where's My Parade?': Margaret Cho and the Asian American Body in Space," Performance Studies Department, New York University. |
| 2001 | Keynote Lecture: "Looking Backward, Looking Forward in Asian American Cultural Criticism." Ninth Annual American Women Writers of Color Conference, Ocean City, MD. |
| 2001 | Keynote Lecture: "That's Ethnotainment: Performing Race in Asian American Literature." University of Illinois, Chicago. |
| 2001 | "Report from the Field: Women's Studies in Asia." Center for the Study of Women, UCLA. |
| 2000 | "'Faking, Dipping, Juking': Performing Ethnicity in Chang Rae Lee's Native Speaker." Center for Ideas and Society, UC-Riverside. |
| 2000 | "The Theory Question in Feminism." Feminist Controversies Series, Center for the Study of Women, UCLA. |
| 2000 | "Asian Pacific American Studies in the Twentieth Century: A Role for Literary Criticism." APA Studies Program, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. |
| 2000 | "The Gendered Terms of Our Traveling Cultures," Traveling Cultures: The Cultural Production of Diaspora, Barnard College/Columbia University. |
| 2000 | "Women's Studies 'Women of Color' Problem." Women's Studies Lecture Series, UC-Irvine. |
| 1999 | "'Faking, Dipping, Juking': (Asian) American Style as Cross-Racial Desire." Center for the Study of Women, UCLA. |
| 1999 | "Women's Studies as Nowhere and Everywhere, Part II." Feminist Controversies Panel, Center for the Study of Women, UCLA. |
| 1998 | "Transnational Masquerade in Chang Rae Lee's Native Speaker." Race and Ethnicity Group, University of Pittsburgh. |
| 1997 | "'Globalizing Asian American Studies': How Have We Framed the Question." Center for Cultural Studies, UC-Santa Cruz. |
| 1996 | "From Here to the Philippines: Nationalism, Feminism, and American Film in Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters." English Department, University of California, Berkeley. Also presented at the California American Studies Association, Pasadena, CA. |
| 1996 | "Carlos Bulosan's America Is in the Heart and the Sexual and Gender Politics of U.S.-Philippines Relations." Women's Studies Department, UCLA. |
CONFERENCE PAPERS
| 2002 | "Reading Contests and Contesting Reading: Chang Rae Lee's Ethnic New York." Annual Meeting of the the Modern Language Association, New York, NY. | |
| 2002 | "'Where's My Parade?' Margaret Cho's Road Show." Women, Theater, and Performance Conference, UC-Irvine. | |
| 2002 | "On Asian American Diva-Nation." Third Annual MESEA Conference: The Sites of Ethnicity. University of Padova, Italy. | |
| 2001 | "Strange Fruit and Stranger Laughter in Paul Beatty's African- and Asian-American Crossings." Collegium on African American Research, Cagliari, Italy. | |
| 2000 | "Stutterers and Thumbsuckers: An Asian American Grammar." Annual Meeting of the Modern Language Association, Washington, D.C. | |
| 2000 | "'Faking, Dipping, Juking': Postmodern Yellowface Meets Gender Performativity." Annual Meeting of the American Studies Association, Detroit, Michigan. | |
| 2000 | "Americans in Disguise: Postmodern Yellow- and Blackface Meet Gender Performativity." Second Annual MELUS Europe Conference, Europe and the United States: Comparative Ethnic Literatures. Université d'Orléans, Orleans, France. | |
| 1999 | "'A Chinese Boy in Blackface'... A Chinese Girl in Yellowface: Theatricality, Representation, and Racialization." Association for Asian American Studies National Conference, Philadelphia, PA. | |
| 1998 | "The Prisonhouse of White Women's Exclusions: 'Now What?' for Women of Color." Annual Meeting of the Modern Language Association Convention, San Francisco, CA. | |
| 1998 | "Acting Out Orientalism and Passing for a Girl in Gish Jen's 'What Means Switch.'" Transnationalism and Gender Group, UC-Berkeley. | |
| 1998 | "Consuming, Teaching, and Researching Asian American Popular Culture." Communities, Contexts, Conflicts: Southern California Regional Meeting of the Association for Asian American Studies, Irvine, CA. | |
| 1997 | "Querying the Queering of Transnationalism," Annual Meeting of the American Studies Association, Washington, D.C. | |
| 1997 | "Asian American Cultural Production in Asian-Pacific Perspective." National Conference of the Society of the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, Honolulu, HI. | |
| 1996 | "'Shattering the Filipinos' Dream of Fraternity': Carlos Bulosan and the Sexual Politics of America." Annual Meeting of the American Studies Association, Kansas City, MO. | |
| 1996 | "Re-siting Empire, Resisting Placelessness: Wendy Law-Yone's The Coffin Tree and the Limitations of Non-territorial Subjectivity." Association for Asian American Studies National Conference, Washington, DC. | |
| 1994 | "Asian American Literature Goes South: Crossing the Border with Karen Tei Yamashita's Through the Arc of the Rain Forest." Association for Asian American Studies National Conference, Ann Arbor, MI. | |
| 1992 | "Territorial Mastery in Kingston's China Men." Modern Language Association Convention, New York, NY. | |
| 1991 | "Claiming Land, Claiming Voice, Claiming Canon: Institutionalized Challenges in Maxine Hong Kingston's China Men and The Woman Warrior." Other Voices: American Women Writers of Color Conference, Salisbury, MD. | |
| 1991 | "Tracings of Eve." Seventh Citadel Conference on Literature, Charleston, SC. | |
| 1990 | "How Do Women's Issues Fit into Emory's New Multi-Cultural Context?" Emory Women's Forum, Atlanta, GA. | |
| 1990 | "The Holographic Frame in Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior." "The Institutional Frame-up" Conference, Stanford University. |
OTHER CONFERENCE ACTIVITY
| 2003 | Session Organizer and Chair, "Asian America.Net: Roundtable," Association for Asian American Studies, San Francisco, May 10th, 10-11:30 a.m. |
| 2003 | Session Chair and Commentator, "Reflecting Body and Other," Dance Under Construction Conference, UCLA. |
| 2002 | Session Organizer and Chair, "'Such Opposite Creatures' Anymore?: Feminist, Gendered, and Queer Maneuvers in Recent Asian American Cultural Criticism." Annual Meeting of the the Modern Language Association, New York, NY. |
| 2002 | Discussant, "The Voice(s) of the Other," Sensibilities of Transformation: The Linguistic Turn and Contemporary Japanese Literary Criticism, UCLA. |
| 2001 | Session Organizer, Chair, and Discussant, "Asian Americans, Ethnographic Specimens, Native Informants," Annual Meeting of the Modern Language Association, New Orleans. |
| 2001 | Session Organizer, Chair, and Discussant, "The Politics and Poetics of Asian American Ethnography," Annual Meeting of the Modern Language Association, New Orleans. |
| 2001 | Moderator/Discussant, "Historical and Racial Mediations I," Minor Transnationalisms, Center for Modern and Contemporary Studies, UCLA. |
| 2000 | Session Organizer & Chair, "What Do Asian American Literary Critics Do?" Annual Meeting of the Modern Language Association, Washington, D.C. |
| 2000 | Discussant, "Asians in North America: Global Perspectives." Western Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, Long Beach, CA. |
| 2000 | Panel Moderator, "Writing Home," Words Matter: An International Asian American Writers Symposium, UCLA. |
| 1998 | Session Organizer, Chair, and Commentary, "The Black Atlantic and Asia/Pacific I & II," International Perspectives on American Studies, Bangkok, Thailand. |
| 1998 | Session Organizer and Co-Chair, "Feminist Pedagogy, Theory, Practice: Teaching and Reading 'Women of Color'", Modern Language Association Convention, San Francisco, CA. |
| 1998 | Session Chair, "Passing in the Service of Empire." Annual Meeting of the American Studies Association, Seattle, WA. |
| 1998 | Session Chair and Discussant, "Histories of the Present Moment: Three Projects in the Age of Post- and Global," Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian American Studies, Honolulu. |
| 1996 | Session Chair, "Transnational Themes and Multiculturalism," Women's Studies and Ethnic Studies Retreat, UCLA. |
| 1993 | Panel Moderator, "Colonial Appropriations and Post-Colonial Strategies," Fourth Southland Graduate Student Conference, UCLA. |
| 1991 | Panel Moderator, "'The Friendly Young Ladies': Reading Lesbian Texts/Subtexts," "Texts, Lies, and Stereotypes," Emory University Graduate Student Conference. |
ACADEMIC SERVICE
(Modern Language Association)
Co-Chair (elected), Committee on Literatures of People of Color in the U.S. and Canada, Modern Language Association of America, 2002–2003
Division on Asian American Literature, Modern Language Association of America, appointed for the term 2002–2006
Committee on Literatures of People of Color in the U.S. and Canada, Modern Language Association of America, appointed for the term 2001–2003
Modern Language Association of America, Delegate Assembly, elected for the term 1999–2001
(Association for Asian American Studies)
Fiction Book Award Committee, 2000–2001
Literary Caucus Organizer and Listserv manager, 1999–2000
(English Department)
Chicano/a Literature Search Committee, 2001–2002
Ad Hoc Personnel Review Committees, 2001–2002
Americanist Search Committee, 1999–2000
Placement Committee, 1999–2000
Ad Hoc Appointment Committee, 1999–2000
Executive Committee (elected), 1997–8
(Women's Studies Program)
Chair, Faculty Advisory Committee, 1999–2002
Chair, Curriculum Committee, 1998–2000
Curriculum Committee, 2001–2002
Executive Committee (elected), 1998–1999
Faculty Advisory Committee, 1997–2003
Undergraduate Departmental Honors Committee, 1997–1998
(Asian American Studies Center)
Chair, Institute of American Cultures, Postdoctoral Fellowship Award Committee, 2001–2002
Chair, IAC, Graduate Fellowship Award Committee, 1999–2000
Ad Hoc Personnel Review Committee, 1999–2000
Faculty Advisory Board, 1998–2001
Institute of American Cultures, Postdoctoral Fellowship Award Committee, 1998–1999
(Center for the Study of Women)
Jean Stone Dissertation Awards Committee, 1998–1999
Advisory Board, 1998–2001
(College)
Faculty Electronic Gradebook Beta Group, 2000
HONORS AND AWARDS
University of California Humanities Research Institute Residential Fellowship, UC-Irvine, Spring 2002
Academic Senate Council, Research Faculty Grants, UCLA 1997–2001
Junior Faculty Career Development Award, UCLA, 2000–2001
Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellowship, UC-Berkeley 1995–97
National Endowment for the Humanities Dissertation Fellowship, 1994–1995
Eugene Cota Robles Fellowship, UCLA, 1992–1994
Office of the President Affirmative Action Award, UCLA, 1991–1992
Graduate Student Paper Award, Association for Asian American Studies, 1992
George W. Woodruff Fellowship, Emory University, 1989–91
Cornell Federation Scholarship, Cornell University, 1984–88
American Association of University Women Scholarship, 1984–88
EDITORIAL AND CONSULTING ACTIVITIES
Associate Editor, Signs (2001–present)
Editorial Board, Hitting Critical Mass (1995–1997)
Referee: MELUS, Signs, Positions, Studies in the Literary Imagination, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press
Session leader: California Reading and Literature Project (2000)
Course Development Consultant, English Department, University of Michigan (2000–2001)
Course Development Consultant, Ethnic Studies, Cal State-Dominguez Hills (2001–2002)
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