Laura Hyun Yi Kang

Picture of Laura Hyun  Yi Kang
Professor, Gender and Sexuality Studies
School of Humanities
Ph.D., University of California, Santa Cruz, 1995, History of Consciousness
B.A., University of California, Berkeley, Ethnic Studies & English
Phone: (949) 824-2376
Email: hykang@uci.edu
University of California, Irvine
3220 Humanities Gateway
Mail Code: 2655
Irvine, CA 92697
Research Interests
Feminist and Gender Studies; Feminist Epistemologies and Theories; Cultural Studies; Political Economies of Globalization; Asian American Literature; Ethnic Studies; Visual Cultures
Academic Distinctions
Association of Asian American Studies Book Award in Cultural Studies 2003

UCI Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research 1998
Appointments
University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellow, UC Berkeley 1995-1996
Research Abstract
My research and publications attempt a multi-modal investigation of the shifting historical conditions of knowledge production about marginalized and newly emergent groups through a focus on “Asian women” and “Asian American women.” By paying close attention to the varied contours and permutations of how these two constituencies are rendered intelligible, I have tried to explore the uneven friction of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class and ethnicity within and across several disciplines and interdisciplinary fields. I would outline seven linked, overlapping areas of my scholarly interest and engagement:

1) feminist epistemologies, with a specific focus on questions of disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity
2) feminist transnational studies of social movements, adjudication and global governance
3) political economies of late capitalism, with a specific focus on women’s labor in Asia and the Pacific Rim
4) American Studies, with a specific focus on the links between shifting modalities of U.S. imperialism in Asia and gendered Asian immigration to the U.S.
5) Asian American literary and cultural studies
6) visual cultures, especially new media studies, cyberactivism and feminist art practices
7) Korean/American studies
Awards and Honors
UCI Chancellor's Fellow, 2022-2025
Short Biography
Undergraduate courses:
Gender and Power
Feminist Theory
Money, Sex and Power
Feminist Cultural Studies
Image Problems: Stereotypes & Representations

Graduate seminars:
Feminist Knowledge and Social Change
Problems in Feminist Research
Violence Against Women
Social Reproduction
Publications
Traffic in Asian Women (Duke University Press, 2020).
Compositional Subjects: Enfiguring Asian/American Women (Duke University Press, 2002)
Echoes upon Echoes: New Korean American Writings Co-edited with Elaine H. Kim (Temple University Press, 2003)
writing away here: a korean/american anthology (Oakland, CA: Korean American Arts Festival Committee, 1994).
Editor of the Theme Unit on "Sex" in A Companion to Contemporary Documentary Film, eds. Alisa Lebow and Alexandra Juhasz (Blackwell, 2015).
"Sex," in A Companion to Contemporary Documentary Film, eds. Alisa Lebow and Alexandra Juhasz (Blackwell, 2015): 211-216.
“Surveillance and the Work of Anti-Trafficking: From Compulsory Examination to International Coordination,” in Feminist Surveillance Studies, ed. Rachel E. Dubrofsky and Shoshana Magnet (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2015): 39-57.
"Late (Global) Capital," in The Routledge Companion to Asian American & Pacific Islander Literature, ed. Rachel C. Lee (Routledge, 2014): 301-314.
"The Uses of Asianization: Figuring Crises, 1997-8 and 2007-?," American Quarterly, v64, n3 (September 2012): 411-436. Special Issue on “Race, Empire and the Crisis of the Subprime.” Winner of the 2013 Best Special Issue Award from The Council of Editors of Learned Journals.
"Si(gh)ting Asian/American Women as Transnational Labor," in Asian American Feminisms, ed. Leslie Bow (London: Routledge, 2012): 307-334.
"Epistemologies," in A Companion to Gender Studies, eds. Philomena Essed, David Goldberg, and Audrey Kobayashi (London: Blackwell, 2009): 73-86.
"Feminist Studies of Asian American Literary/Cultural Studies," in Feminist Studies, v33, n3 (Fall 2007): 518-538.
"Case Studies," in Vectors: Journal of Culture and Technology in a Dynamic Vernacular, n3 (2006).
"Conjuring ‘Comfort Women’: Mediated Affiliations and Disciplined Subjects in Korean/American Transnationality." Journal of Asian American Studies (February 2003): 25-55.
"The Desiring of Asian Female Bodies: Interracial Romance and Cinematic Subjection," in Screening Asian Americans, ed. Peter X. Feng (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2002): 71-100.
"Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s DICTEE," in Resource Guide to Asian American Literature, eds. Stephen H. Sumida and Sau-ling C. Wong. (New York: Modern Languages Association, 2001): 32-44.
"Missing Homelands and Korean/American Traversals: The Work of Art in the Time-Space of Diasporic Cultural Production," in KOREAMERICAKOREA. (Seoul, Korea: Artsonje Center, 2000): 90-95.
“Theresa Hak Kyung Cha.” ART (October 2000): 72-83.
“The Autobiographical Stagings of Jin-me Yoon,” in Jin-me Yoon: Between
Departure and Arrival (Vancouver, BC: Western Front Gallery, 1998): 23-42.
“Re-membering Home,” in Dangerous Women: Korean Women and Nationalism, eds. Elaine H. Kim and Chungmoo Choi (Routledge, 1998): 249-290.
"A Contending Pedagogy: Asian American Studies as Extracurricular Praxis," in Teaching Asian America: Diversity and the Problem of Community (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1998): 123-141.
"Si(gh)ting Asian/American Women as Transnational Labor." Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique 5.2 (Fall 1997): 403-437.
“The 'Liberatory Voice' of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's Dictee,”in Writing Self, Writing Nation: Essays on Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's Dictee, eds Elaine H. Kim and Norma Alarcón. (Berkeley: Third Woman Press, 1994): 73–99.
"The Desiring of Asian Female Bodies: Interracial Romance and Cinematic Subjection," Visual Anthropology Review, 9 (1993): 5–21.
Professional Societies
American Studies Association
National Women's Studies Association
Association of Asian American Studies
Association for Asian Studies
Graduate Programs
Visual Studies
Research Centers
Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy
Center for Critical Korean Studies
Center for Asian Studies
Last updated
04/21/2023