My research lies between political theory, feminist and queer theory, and American studies. It primarily concerns relationships between affect and politics in the United States, shaped by entangled histories of slavery, dispossession, heteronormativity, and global war. My research strives to loosen the hold of power by amplifying minor forms of being and relating.
Research Areas
Political theory, Asian American studies, queer theory, Black studies, settler colonial and Indigenous studies
Research Interests
Affect, race, biopolitics, new materialisms, ecology
Current Research Projects
I am presently conducting two major research projects: A Life Otherwise and The Yellow Commons.
A Life Otherwise examines how the good life, in addition to establishing how life ought to be lived, advances an exclusionary notion of what life is. It retrieves minor forms of life that do not comport with possession, order, optimized bodily capacity, longevity, reproductive intimacy, and a providential nature. Part of this project has been published as “Vital Impasse.”
The Yellow Commons develops a speculative ontology of Asian America as a more-than-human assemblage in the wake of anti-Asian racism. It reimagines ethical and political activity through new materialisms and vitalisms, process philosophy, posthumanisms, and Asian American and Indigenous studies. Part of this project has been published as “Yellow Matter: Asian/America beyond Man.”