EDUCATION
2003 Master of Fine Arts • Creative Writing
Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Bard College
1999 Bachelor of Arts • American Studies
The University of California, Berkeley
AWARDS
2009 • New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow in Poetry
2008 – 2009 • Writer-in-Residence, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
Residency awarded for work on “Great Society,” a text- and audio-based project examining the effects of the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act on the social and economic landscape of lower Manhattan. Lower Manhattan is a rich site for exploring the act’s economic, social, and political consequences, as it led to an increase in skilled “third world” immigration and continues to influence contemporary U.S. discourse on immigration, labor, multiculturalism, and xenophobia.
2008 • Finalist, New Rivers Press MVP Award
2008 • Finalist, Bateau/BOOM Chapbook Competition
2008 • Finalist, Art in General New Commissions Program
2007 • Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant
Grant awarded for travel and research towards Room of the Sun, a multiple-channel installation exploring the life and legacy of the “Match King,” Swedish industrialist Ivar Kreuger, founder of Swedish Match, the world’s largest manufacturer of matches and the most powerful European industrialist during the interwar period. In collaboration with Benjamin Gerdes.
2007 • PEN Translation Fund Grant
Grant awarded for the translation of Swedish poet Fredrik Nyberg’s second collection of poetry, Clockwork of Flowers: Explanations and Poems (Blomsterur: Förklaringar och Dikter, Norstedts Förlag, Stockholm, 2000).
2006 – 2007 • MacDowell Colony Fellow
Residency awarded for the translation of Kerstin Norborg’s collection of prose poems, As Soon As I Go Out (Så fort jag går ut, Norstedts Förlag, Stockholm 1998) and Fredrik Nyberg’s second collection of poetry, Clockwork of Flowers: Explanations and Poems (Blomsterur: Förklaringar och Dikter, Norstedts Förlag, Stockholm, 2000).
2004 • Witter Bynner Poetry Translator Residency
Residency awarded for the translation of Inner China (Det inre av Kina, Norstedts Förlag, Stockholm, 2003) by Swedish poet Eva Sjödin. Co-sponsored by The Santa Fe Art Institute and the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry, this one-month residency supports published and emerging poetry translators in project-based work.
2004 • SWEA San Francisco grant
Sponsored by the San Francisco chapter of SWEA (Swedish Women’s Educational Association), this $5,000 grant is awarded to well-merited individuals seeking to pursue academic research or artistic projects with particular relevance to Swedish culture.
1999 • Phi Beta Kappa, UC Berkeley
1996 • Academy of American Poets Award/Celeste T. Wright Poetry Prize, UC Davis
1995 & 1996 • Pamela I. Mauss Creative Writing Award for Poetry, UC Davis
PUBLICATIONS
Harp & Altar • 2009
Salt Hill • Spring 2009
Rethinking Marxism • Spring 2008
“No More Strike Anywhere”: 20-page photo- and text-based essay on the Swedish industrialist, entrepreneur, and pacifist Ivar Kreuger (1880-1932). In collaboration with Benjamin Gerdes.
Action, Yes • October 2006
Insurance • Summer 2003
The Asian Pacific American Journal • Spring/Summer 2000
PUBLICATIONS (TRANSLATION)
CapGun • Spring 2009
Chicago Review • Fall 2008
A Different Practice (Ugly Duckling Presse) • 2007
Book-length collection by Swedish poet Fredrik Nyberg (published in the original by Norstedts Förlag, Stockholm 1998)
Calque • September 2007
Inner China, A Tale (Litmus Press) • 2005
Book-length prose poetry project by Swedish writer Eva Sjödin (published in the original by Norstedts Förlag, Stockholm 2003)
Circumference • Spring/Summer 2005
The Literary Review • Summer 2002 & Fall 2007
READINGS
2008 / 2009 • The Asian American Writers’ Workshop • New York, NY
2008 • Sarah Lawrence College • Bronxville, NY
2006 / 2008 • Unnameable Books • Brooklyn, NY
2008 • Zinc Bar Reading Series • New York, NY
2008 • Stain of Poetry Reading Series • Brooklyn, NY
2007 • Cup & Pen Reading Series • New York, NY
2006 • Canessa Park Reading Series • San Francisco, CA
2005 • The Bowery Poetry Club • New York, NY
REVIEWS
2009
Robert Archambeau, “Double Gesture” Boston Review July/August 2009 (Review of A Different Practice)
Patrik Boström, “Lab 09: plattform för samtal” Norrländska Socialdemokraten, June 25, 2009 (Review of Luleå Biennial 2009)
Mikael Olofsson, “Konsten i Luleå tar en risk” Göteborgs Posten August 9, 2009
2008
Steven Karl, “Review of A Different Practice,” Sink Review 1:3
“Editors’ Introduction” Rethinking Marxism, 20:2, April 2008
2006
Natalie Stephens, “Corps petit en sursis” Revue Le Quartanier #6 (Review of Inner China)
2005
Raymond Bianchi, Review of Inner China, www.chicagopostmodernpoetry.com
2004
Jeffrey Kastner, “Manhattan Project: The Friends of William Blake,” Artforum September, 2004, 216.
ARTIST’S PROJECTS
2009 • Luleå Biennial, Sweden
Room of the Sun (2009)
Video essay about the “Match King,” Swedish industrialist, financier, and pacifist Ivar Kreuger (1880-1932). The project is both a prehistory of neoliberalism and an allegory about socio-economic relations and desire in the wake of global capitalist expansion and excess. In collaboration with Benjamin Gerdes. (HDV, 30 min.)
2008 & 2009 • Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, CA & Scope Art Fair, NY
Because There Are so Many: Iraq (2007)
Documentary project where four Iraqi men discuss their flight from Iraq following the United States invasion in 2003. Between them – an interpreter for the US military, a computer technician for a military contractor, an English professor, and an oil ministry employee – a dialogue emerges about their lives as refugees in Sweden. They discuss their divergent approaches to coping with trauma, identity, and representation, as well as their ambivalent feelings towards U.S. foreign policy. In collaboration with Benjamin Gerdes. (HDV, 7 min.)
Wall text, translation, and audio work included in “When Artists Say We,” a group exhibition that examined, “the context in which artists work as colleagues, as collaborators, in collectives, as friends, as critics, as bystanders, and as allies, sharing New York City as their site of practice.”
2005 • The Vera List Center for Art & Politics at The New School • NY
Hirabayashi v. United States (1943)
Text-based overhead projection that explores the relationship between forgiveness and erasure by imagining how judicial decisions might be inscribed on sites of political resistance, displacement, and disenfranchisement, included in the 2005 exhibition “’I beg your pardon’ or the Reestablishing of Cordial Relations” sponsored by the Vera List Center at the New School.
2004 • ISEA • Helsinki, Finland
Free Evenings and Weekends, an audio installation exploring global telecommunications jargon using cell phone technology and intertextual translation, included in the program at ISEA 2004 (International Symposium for Electronic Arts), Helsinki, Finland.
TEACHING & PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Sep ’07 – Present • Acting Director, Asian American Studies Program • Hunter College, The City University of New York
Reporting directly to the Dean of Arts & Sciences, I am responsible for six adjunct faculty members in a program that offers approx. 30 courses/academic year, as well as a 12-credit minor in Asian American Studies. Responsibilities include development, leadership, mediation, and articulation of needs in curricular, personnel, and budgetary matters; hiring of adjunct faculty; extensive student advising for minors and non-minors; scheduling and cross-listing of courses in consultation with the Departments of English, Sociology, and Urban Affairs; website maintenance; planning and coordination of co-curricular programs (annual open house, spring speakers’ series, workshops, film screenings & discussions); serving as a liaison between AASP faculty, the Hunter College administration, and relevant off-campus community organizations in order to expand scope of the program; successful placement of AASP minors in prestigious internships, fellowships, scholarships, and professional positions.
Jan ‘06 – Present • Lecturer, Asian American Studies Program • Hunter College, The City University of New York
Courses taught at Hunter College include Asian 210 (Asians in the U.S.), Asian 220 (Asian American Women Writers), Asian 320 (Nation, Self, and Asian Identity), and Asian 321 (Asian American Social Protest Literature). Subjects addressed include literary examinations of global Asian diasporas, looking closely at the historical, economic, psychological, legal, and cultural factors that shape our understanding of Asian America, including encounters between the immigrant subject and organized labor, Asian American mixed race identities, national identity and the law, Asian American cultural production, Asian American sexualities, and Asian American political activism.
Jan ’06 – June ’07 • Adjunct Instructor • Department of English, Montclair State University, NJ
Courses taught at MSU include ENWR 200, an introductory creative writing workshop (poetry, fiction, and drama) as well as ENWR 105 and ENWR 106, the University’s first-year writing sequence.
Spring ‘03 – Summer ’06 • Visiting Lecturer • Department of Asian American Studies, The University of California, Davis
Courses taught at UCD include ASA 130 and ASA 136. The former is a survey course in Asian American literature, where topics included diasporic identity formation, intersectionality, translation, intertextuality, postcolonial subjectivity, as well as formal considerations of disparate literary genres. Examples of final projects include a video documentary on Cambodian deportation, a Hmong grandmother’s oral history, the first five chapters of a novel addressing the Filipino American experience, as well as photo essays, short stories, and poetry chapbooks. ASA 136 examined a range of cultural practices that can be considered modes of performance, all of them informing the concept of Asian American subjecthood. In particular, we explored Asian American identity and its relationship to the body: how Asian American performance is constituted by the law, racial stereotypes, class, age, gender, fluency, etc., be it on a theater stage, in a film/video, in an art gallery, or in a political demonstration. Students were expected to produce a number of critical and creative writing assignments, a dramatic monologue, as well as a research-based final essay.
Aug ’04 – Jan ’05 • Assistant to the Political Director • Downtown for Democracy Political Action Committee, NY
Feb ’04 – May ’04 • Proofreader • Graduate Enrollment Services, New York University, NY
Oct ’03 – Nov ’03 • Teacher, Upper School • Black Pine Circle School, Berkeley, CA
June ’03 – Oct ’03 • Research Assistant • Department of Asian American Studies, The University of California, Davis
Part-time position as Research Assistant to Professor Wendy Ho, examining the history of Trinidadian literature as it relates to representations of space and sexuality in Shani Mootoo’s novel Cereus Blooms at Midnight. In addition, I copyedited work for an anthology of essays stemming from a UC Davis speakers’ series on Critical Race Theory.
Nov ’02 • Visiting Artist, Creative Writing • Cultural Arts Center, Syosset, NY
Developed and conducted one-day creative writing workshop for high school seniors attending the Center’s Arts Program, designed to prepare students for careers in the arts. Discussions and in-class writing exercises focused on experimental poetry and prose intended to enhance students’ understanding of non-traditional creative processes.
Jan ’00 – June ’00 • Circulations and Office Manager • Index Magazine, NY
Oct ’99 – Dec ’99 • Copywriting Assistant • The Museum of Modern Art, NY
CONFERENCES & PRESENTATIONS
2008 & 2009 • CUNY Asian American/Asian Research Institute (AAARI) Conference
Chair of conference committee for spring 2009 conference, “Redefining Asian America.” Responsibilities included coordination of CFP; extensive outreach to speakers, moderators, and panelists; coordination of all marketing materials; serving as day-of point of contact for all participants; organizing post-conference reception in collaboration with the CUNY Graduate Center and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. In addition, I also served as a member of the planning committee for the 2008 AAARI conference on Asian American women.
2009 • NYCAASC (New York City Asian American Student Conference) • New York University, NY
Panelist, “Asian American Activism: From the Classroom to the Streets”
2008 • NYCAASC (New York City Asian American Student Conference) • New York University, NY
Panelist, “Asian American Studies: Respected Discipline or Soon-to-Be Forgotten Fad?”
2008 • East of California Conference • University of Connecticut, Storrs
Roundtable discussion on academic/student affairs, Association for Asian American Studies East of California Conference at the University of Connecticut, Storrs Campus. Moderator: Angela Rola, Director, Asian American Cultural Center at the University of Connecticut, Storrs.
2006 • “When Artists Say We” • Artists Space, NY
Panelist as part of When Artists Say We exhibition program, “Video works and poetic texts: an afternoon in translation, with Ayreen Anastas, Jennifer Hayashida, Lana Lin and Jesal Kapadia.”
2005 • CCCP: The CUNY Conference on Contemporary Poetry • CUNY Graduate Center, NY
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Associate Fiction Editor • Fence Magazine
Editor-at-Large (Scandinavian Languages) • Calque Magazine
Executive Board Member • CUNY Asian American/Asian Research Institute (AAARI)
AAAS • Association for Asian American Studies
ALTA • American Literary Translators Association
STiNA • Scandinavian Translators in North America