Chen's talk focuses on the aesthetics, cultural imaginings, and political potential of twenty-first century trans Asian American multimedia performance. Chen describes and theorizes racially trans embodied practices which intervene in state and social regimes of sense that have sought to extinguish and control the multiplicity of Asian American genders. They explore connections between emerging trans Asian American cultures and longer standing queer and feminist cultural critiques and histories

Bio:
Jian Neo Chen (they/ he) is associate professor of English and previous director of Sexuality Studies at The Ohio State University. Their research, teaching, writing, and cultural work focus on transgender and queer aesthetics and embodied practices in literature, visual culture, and contemporary theory and their reimagining and reconstruction of social relations and movements. Their first book Trans Exploits: Trans of Color Cultures and Technologies in Movement is forthcoming in spring 2019 with Duke University Press’s ANIMA series.

There will also be a Graduate Student Workshop in the morning from 11:30am-1pm. Contact Michael Pascual <pascualm@umich.edu> for details.