Seo-Young Chu (주서영) (she/her/hers)
Associate Professor, English
The 20th century, the 21st century, the 22nd century, aesthetics, Asian American studies, autotheory, close reading, cultural theory, disability studies, DMZ studies, gender, the gothic, the Koreas, lyric poetry, mental illness, #MeToo, modernism, multi-ethnic literatures of the United States, rhetoric, science fiction, theory, trauma
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- Contact
- seoyoung.chu@qc.cuny.edu
- Website
- https://hcommons.org/members/schu/
- Quick Link
- http://cuny.is/seoyoungchu
The 20th century, the 21st century, the 22nd century, aesthetics, Asian American studies, autotheory, close reading, cultural theory, disability studies, DMZ studies, gender, the gothic, the Koreas, lyric poetry, mental illness, #MeToo, modernism, multi-ethnic literatures of the United States, rhetoric, science fiction, sexual violence, theory, trauma
B.A. Yale, 1999
M.A. Stanford, 2001
Ph.D. Harvard, 2007
(Updating this site is taking a long time because I’m disabled, I’m overworked, I don’t have an assistant, and CUNY is underfunded. A better version of this site can be found here: https://hcommons.org/members/schu/)
Seo-Young Chu (she/her) is a queer disabled cyborg of mostly Korean descent. Her publications include “I, Discomfort Woman: A Fugue in F Minor” (The Margins, Asian American Writers’ Workshop), “Free Indirect Suicide: An Unfinished Fugue In H Minor” (The Rumpus), Do Metaphors Dream of Literal Sleep? A Science-Fictional Theory of Representation (Harvard UP), “A Refuge for Jae-in Doe: Fugues in the Key of English Major” (Entropy), and “I, Stereotype: Detained in the Uncanny Valley” (Techno-Orientalism: Imagining Asia in Speculative Fiction, History, and Media, Rutgers UP). Her work has been listed among “Notable Essays & Literary Nonfiction” in The Best American Essays 2020 and anthologized in The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2018, Best American Experimental Writing 2020, and Advanced Creative Nonfiction. Her current works-in-progress include a design-fictional memoir and a video essay on audio descriptions and anti-Asian violence. She teaches in the English Department at Queens College, CUNY.
“A Conversation on Sexual Violence in Asian America” (Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture at the University of Chicago)
“AAWW TV: Robot Coda” (Asian American Writers’ Workshop)
“Beyond the Catastrophic Origins of the Korean DMZ” / “The Human Rights of a No-Man’s Land” (Queens College, CUNY, and Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand)
“Korean American #MeToo” (Korean American Story)
“How #MeToo Helped Seo-Young Chu Name Her Harasser” (New York Magazine)
“My Professional World Has Gotten Smaller” (Chronicle of Higher Education)
“NOT HERE: ASIAN AMERICAN WRITERS ON GENERATIONAL TRAUMA” (Connecticut Office of the Arts)
“On Audio Descriptions and Anti-Asian Violence” (MLA)
“Seo-Young discusses her struggles at Yale, stress culture, and gives some advice and perspective” (Elis for Rachael)
Seo-Young Chu on “Do Metaphors Dream of Literal Sleep?” (TTBOOK)
“Transnational Dialogue on Science Fiction” (Kaya Press)
“Utopias Misplaced: The Cost of Outsourcing Dystopian Poetics to North Korea” (Yale University)
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
(Updating my CV is taking a long time because I’m disabled, I’m overworked, I don’t have an assistant, and CUNY is underfunded. A better version of this site can be found here: https://hcommons.org/members/schu/)
(note to self: redo formatting and links and add info from notes!)
(add “Dear Stanford: You must reckon with your history of sexual violence” –not sure which category)
(add “I, Discomfort Woman: A Fugue in F Minor” (The Margins, Asian American Writers’ Workshop)
(add “Jogakpo Window (7 feet x 4 feet).” Materials: glass, sunlight, post-it notes. (ctrl + v journal) #조각보 #Jogakpo https://ctrlvjournal.com/issue12/chu.html [Image description: Photographs show a large window covered with a patchwork of colorful post-it notes. Sunlight illuminates the paper.]
Do Metaphors Dream of Literal Sleep? A Science-Fictional Theory of Representation. Harvard UP, 2011.
+ Chinese translation /A Shanghai foreign language education press is planning to publish a Chinese translation of this volume in its series of science fiction and posthuman studies, to be edited by Professor Mingwei Song, Wellesley College.
on- the list of some 50 ” significant works in the field of science fiction studies ” (as of 2022) in Wikipedia; in
– the bibliography of SF criticism – my book is among the 41 books published in 2011 – that “the editors of Science Fiction Studies deem to be important, influential, or historically noteworthy”; among the
– 10 best books of the decade, 2010-2019: science fiction studies , compiled by Guynes, Sean, 27 Dec. 2019;
+ Reviewed and cited
Reviewed, discussed, cited, analyzed, applied, and studied in a range of sites and venues, including the following:
+1 Reviewed (in reverse chronological order)-
– Canavan, Gerry. “Review of Seo-Young Chu’s Do Metaphors Dream of Literal Sleep? A Science Fictional Theory of Representation.” Comparative Literature Studies , Fall, 49.4, 2012.
– Higgins, David. “Do Metaphors Dream of Literal Sleep? A Science-Fictional Theory of Representation/The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction.” American Literature , 84.3, 2012.
– Gerald Collins, Samuel. “Review: [Untitled] Do Metaphors Dream of Literal Sleep? A Science-Fictional Theory of Representation.” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts , vol. 23, no. 2, 2012.
– Istvan Csicsery-Ronay. “Fantastic Mimesis: A Diamond in the Rough, Not the Philosopher’s Stone.” Contemporary Literature , 53.2, 2012.
– Philip Johnson, John. “Do Metaphors Dream of Literal Sleep? A Science Fictional Theory of Representation (Review).” Star*Line, 35.2, 2012.
– Latham, Robert. “Back to the Future of SF Studies.” Extrapolation , 53.1, 2012.
– Rieder, John. “Turning Suvin Inside Out” (Review of Seo-Young Chu, Do Metaphors
Dream of Literal Sleep?). Science Fiction Studies , November, 38.3, 2011.
– Maus, D.C. “Do Metaphors Dream of Literal Sleep? A Science-Fictional Theory of Representation.” Choice Review, 48.11, 2011.
– Frelik, Pawel. “Do Metaphors Dream of Literal Sleep? A Science-Fictional Theory of Representation (Review).” SFRA Review , #298, 2011.
+2. Interviewed for online publication and on radio
– Cover Interview by ROROTOKO. ” The Double Lives of Metaphors, Robots, and Other Science-Fictional/Lyric Figures .” Cutting-Edge Intellectual Interview, edited by Erind Pajo. Web. 20 Jun. 2011.
– Radio Interview with Jim Fleming. “Seo-Young Chu on Do Metaphors Dream of Literal Sleep?” Program Title: The Language of Science Fiction . To the Best of Our Knowledge ( TTBOOK ). Distributed by PRI Public Radio International, Web. 25
Sept. 2011 .
+3. Cited (in reverse chronological order)
Discussed, cited, analyzed, applied (in reverse chronological order) In English literature
– Hermann, Isabella. “Artificial intelligence in fiction: between narratives and metaphors.” AI & SOCIETY , 5 Oct. 2021.
– Osborne, C. “The Age of Mimesis.” The Moonspeaker , 14 Sept. 2020.
– Ginszt, Katarzyna. “Incorporating Robots into Human Law – An Analysis of Robot Prototyping in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and Alex Proyas’ I, Robot.” New Horizons in English Studies : Culture & Media, no. 5, 2020.
– Tolentino, Jia. “How ‘The Memory Police’ Make You See.” The New Yorker , 6 Nov. 2019.
– Polvinen, Merja. “Sense-Making and Wonder: An Enactive Approach to Narrative Form in Speculative Fiction.” Zara Dinnen and Roby Warhol, editors. The Edinburgh Companion to Contemporary Narrative Theories , Edinburgh UP, 2018.
– ” Robot Coda: Writers on Love, Race, and Technology .” Asian American Writers Workshop, 9 May 2018.
– Isaacson, Nathaniel. “Voices from the Cybernetic House.” Chinese Literature Today , vol 7, no. 1, 2018.
– Song, Mingwei. “Representations of the Invisible: Chinese Science Fiction in the
Twenty-First Century.” Carlos Rojas and Andrea Bachner, editors. The Oxford Handbook of Modern Chinese Literatures, Sept. 2016.
– Polvinen, Merja. “Metaphor and Cognition in Catheryunne M. Valente’s ‘Silently
and Very Fast,’” Abstract. The Nordic SF & Fantasy Convention, Aland Marihamn, 25-28 Jun. 2015.
– Haslam, Jason W. Gender, Race, and American Science Fiction. Routledge, 2015.
– McNeill, Dougal. “Migration, My Nation!” Overland Literary Journal, 216, 2014.
https://overland.org.au/previous-issues/issue-216/feature-dougal-mcneill/ .
– Vint, Shorryl. Science Fiction: A Guide for the Perplexed. Bloomsbury, 2014.
– McNeill, Dougal. “The Forrests as Science Fiction.” The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 49.4, 2014.
– Sohn, Stephen Hong. Racial Asymmetries Asian American Fictional Worlds, New York UP, 2014.
– McHale, Brian. “Science Fiction, or, The Most Typical Genre in World Literature.”
Pirjo Lyytikaeinen, Tintti Klapuri and Minna Maijala, editors. Genre and
Interpretation. Department of Finnish, Finno-Ugrian and Scandinavian Studies, 2010.
– Burt, Stephanie. “Science Fiction and Life after Death.” American Literary History, 26.1, 2014.
– Gomel, Elana. Narrative Space and Time: Representing Impossible Topologies in Literature (Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature). Routledge, 2014.
– Clune, Michael. “Beyond Realism.” Leigh Claire La Berge and Alison Shonkwiler, editors. Reading Capitalist Realism. U of Iowa P, 2014.
– Freedgood, Elaine and Cannon Schmitt. “Denotatively, Technically, Literally.”
Representation. U of California P, 125.1, 2014.
– Fulk, Kirkland A. “From Outer Space to the Circus Tent.” text praxis. Digitales Journal fuer Philologie, 2, 2013.
– Tomberg, Jaak. “On the ‘Double Vision’ of Realism and SF Estrangement in William Gibson’s Bridge Trilogy.” Science-Fiction Studies, 40.2, 2013.
– Wegener, Susanne. Restless Subjects in Rigid Systems. transcript Verlag. Bielefeld, 2013.
– Cote, Sharon. “‘It’s All Par for the Lifestyle, Kids’: Conventional Metaphors for Risks and Misfortune in Cyberpunk and Post-Cyberpunk Literature,” 2013.
– Stevens, John H. “The Potential Paratext in the Criticism of Fantastika.” SF Signal, 5 Apr. 2012.
– Hartland, Dan. “At the Mouth of the River of Bees by Kij Johnson.” Strange Horizons, 3 Oct. 2012.
– Heymans, Peter. Animality in British Romanticism: The Aesthetics of Species (Routledge Studies in Romanticism). Routledge, 2012.
– Sean. “From Authorial to Authoritarian: Notes on the Sci-Fi State, Idiosyncratic Ideology, and Hyperrealpolitik,” MERE PSEUD BLOG ED , Mar. 19 2011.
In legal study
– Singer, Joseph William. “The Indian States of America: Parallel Universes and Overlapping Sovereignty.” American Indian Law Review , vol 38, no. 1, 2014.
In visual art
– Motel Guillen, Jorge and Reid Ramirez. “Slipstream.” Art Exhibition, 17 Nov.-15 Dec. 2019.
In cognitive science
– Douglas Hofstadter and Emmanuel Sander. Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking. Basic Books, 2013.
+4. On syllabi, in PhD dissertations, and in MA theses (in no particular order)
Discussed in classrooms and cited in PhD dissertations and MA theses (in reverse chronological order)
– The Postmodern Novel and Beyond (syllabus, spring 2013, UT Austin)
– Studies in Film Genres “The Fearful Other in Science Fiction Cinema” (syllabus, summer 2014, Texas A&M)
– Reading list prepared by Cam Awkward-Rich, a graduate student at Stanford, for a Ph.D field oral exam, 2014.
– Thinking in Public: A Blog by the Honors Humanities Program, Univ. of Maryland
– Reading list on “Metaphor and Analogy.” Professor Cosma Rohilla Shalizi (Physicist) Carnegie Mellon University Department of Statistics.
– Syllabus for Professor Tavia Nyong’o’s course: “Speculation and Race.” NYU Department of Performance Studies, 2011.
– Holmgren, Lindsay. “Knowing Children: Telepathy in Anglo-American Fiction, 1846-1946.” Ph.D. dissertation, Department of English, McGill University. Montreal, QC, 2013.
– Craft-Jenkins, Kyle. “Artificial Intelligence and the Technological Sublime: How Virtual Characters Influence the Landscape of Modern Sublimity.” M.A. thesis, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Kentucky, 2012.
+5 Other (in no particular order)
– Stanford Humanities Center
– The Berlin Film Journal
– Twitter Strange Horizons
“Finale: Or, Alternative Originaries: Imagining an Asian American Superhero of a North Korean Origin.” Asian American Literature in Transition, 1996-2020: Volume 4 , edited by Betsy Huang and Victor Roman Mendoza, Cambridge University Press,
2021.
+ Korean translation
Korea Research, published in Korean by National Research Foundation of Korea, has a plan to release a Korean translation of this essay in one of its forthcoming issues.
+ Cited in a paper assigned for a course
– Dixon, Sophie. “Cleaving, cleaving.” Prepared for a course taught by Professor Dougal MacNeill, School of English, Film, Theatre, Media Studies, and Art History, Victoria School of Wellington, New Zealand, Fall 2022.
“Which of the Following Statements is True?” Journal of Asian American Studies, Vol. 24, No. 1, Feb 2021.
“Emoji Poetics.” ASAP/Journal, Vol. 4, No. 2, May 2019.
” The DMZ Responds .” Telos Special Issue on Korea, Fall 2018.
* “After ‘A Refuge for Jae-in Doe’: A Social Media Chronology ,*” 15 Mar. 2018.*(not including private correspondence).
“I, Stereotype: Detained in the Uncanny Valley.” Techno-Orientalism: Imagining Asia in Speculative Fiction, History, and Media , edited by David Roh, Greta Niu, and Betsy Huang, Rutgers UP, 2015.
” Science-Fictional North Korea: A Defective History .” Episode 4 , edited by Marleen S. Barr , Deletion: The Open Access Online Forum in Science Fiction Studies , 2014.
” Welcome to The Vegas Pyongyang .” Science Fiction Studies , special issue, 39.3, focusing on globalization, edited by David Higgins and Rob Latham, 2012.
” Dystopian Surface, Utopian Dream : Wittman Ah Sing Foresees Postethnic Humanity .” A New Literary History of America , edited by Greil Marcus and Werner Sollors , Harvard UP, 2009 .
” Science Fiction and Postmemory Han in Contemporary Korean American Literature .” MELUS (Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States) 33.4, ” Alien/Asian: Imagining the Racialized Future ,” edited by Stephen Hong
Sohn , 2008. Discussed, cited, analyzed, applied (in reverse chronological order)
In books and papers
– Anonymous. “Postmemory in Contemporary Korean Literature.” Pinpoint Korea, Moon Bear Travel Website, founded by Allison Needels, with Hannah Roberts as guest writer. A paper presented as CCLPS (Center for Cultural, Literary and Postcolonial Studies) Postgraduate Conference at SOAS (School of Asian and Oriental Studies), University of London, 2018.
– Jerng, Mark C. “Adoptee.” The Routledge Companion to Asian American and Pacific Islander Literature, edited by Rachel Lee. Routledge, 2014.
– Homans, Margaret. The Imprint of Another Life: Adoption Narratives and Human Possibility, The U of Michigan P, 2013.
– Hseu, Jane. “Teaching Race and Space Through Asian American and Latino Performance Poetry: I Was Born with Two Tongues’ Broken Speak and Sonido Ink (quieto)’s Chicano, Illnoize.” Asian American Literature: Discourses and Pedagogies, 2013.
– Manzella, Abigail G.H. “Disorientation in Julie Otsuka’s When the Emperor Was Divine: The Imprisoned Spaces of Japanese Americans during World War II.” Nation, Migration, and Identity in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Maha Marouan and
Merinda Simmons, The U of Alabama P, 2013.
– Kim, Simon C. Memory and Honor: Cultural and Generational Ministry with Korean American Communities. Michael Glazier, 2013.
– Moon, Hellena. “The ‘Living Human Web’ Revisited: American Pastoral Care Counseling Perspective.” Sacred Spaces: The e-Journal of American Association of Pastoral Counselors, 2010.
– Jerng, Mark C. Claiming Others: Transracial Adoption and National Belonging. U of Minnesota P, 2010.
In a Ph.D. dissertation and Master’s theses
– Hur, David. “Diasporic Ethnopoetics Through ‘Han-Gook’: An Inquiry into Korean American Technicians of the Enigmatic.” Ph.D. dissertation. UC Santa Barbara, 2020.
– Wong, Jane. “The Poetics of Haunting in Contemporary Asian American Poetry.” Ph.D dissertation. University of Washington, 2016.
– Hilbourn, Nicholas. “American Mansin: Representation of Trauma and Domestic Resistance Against Imperialism in Nora Okja Keller’s Comfort Woman and Fox Girl.”
M.A. thesis. State University of New York at Binghamton, 2014.
– Hary, Simone. “‘Kyopo’ Daughters in Germany: The Construction of Identity among Second-Generation German-Korean Women in Germany.” Ph.D. dissertation.
University of Sussex, 2012.
– Jones, Andrew. “From Time and Space: Science Fiction and Its Present Moment.” M.A. thesis. Department of English, Colorado State University, 2012.
– Dickinson and Mathematics .” The Emily Dickinson Journal ,15.1, 2006.
In books /papers
– Kempthorne, Loveday. “Czeslaw Milosz and Zhigniew Herbert: Literary Responses to Non-Euclidean Geometries.” The European Connection: Essays in European Language Studies at New Zealand Universities 2012.16. The University of Auckland, 2013.
– Lee, Maurice S. Uncertain Chances: Science, Skepticism, and Belief in Nineteenth-Century American Literature. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2012.
-Sizemore, Michelle. “Do the Math and Delight.” https://theaccountmagazine.com/article/sizemore-18/
On syllabi
– Professor Lawrence D’Antioni’s Honors Seminar: “History of Mathematics, the
Magic of Mathematics.” Ramapo College of New Jersey.
” Hypnotic Ratiocination .” The Edgar Allan Poe Review , 6.1, 2005.
In a book
– Poe, Harry Lee. Evermore: Edgar Allan Poe and the Mystery of the Universe. Baylor UP, 2012.
-add others later
Creative Nonfiction, Interviews, Creative Writing, Reviews, Reprints, Artwork
Forthcoming: “Describing DICTEE,” Paideuma (fall 2022)
I SEE YOU AND YOU SEE ME . Directed by Harris Doran. A Madison Square Films Production. 12 Queens residents/writers, including myself, contributed brief stories about their lives during the early months of the current pandemic, providing a basis for this film, presented by Queens Theater, 2021. See the following articles for links to further details:
– YouTube ( https://youtu.be/OG0TjrWk4Eo ).
– Queens Daily Eagle, 9 Apr. 2021 ( https://queenseagle.com/all/new-stage-and-film-project-gives-life-to-queens-pandemic-experience ).
– Broadwayworld.com, 24 May 2021 ( Queens Theatre to Premiere I SEE YOU AND YOU SEE ME in April. broadwayworld.com) .
Descriptions of visual images in DICTEE by Therea Hak Kyung Cha (1982), 9 Nov. 2021 (see also the section on SERVICE of this CV).
#MeToo and KoreanAmericanStory video interview on the sexual violence at Stanford University and its aftermath I experienced as a Korean American (recorded in summer 2021)
“Seo-Young Chu’s Photographs.” Seo-Young Chu’s Covid-19 Poetic Reflection. Queens Memory Covid-19 Project, Queens College Special Collections and Archives, 21 Apr. 2021 (JSTOR).
” Free Indirect Suicide: An Unfinished Fugue in H Minor .” The Rumpus, 26 Mar. 2019.
+ lists
This work is on the list of “Notable Essays and Literary Nonfiction of 2019,” in
Best American Essays of 2020 . Mariner Books, 3 Sept. 2020.
[Add others here]
” A Refuge for Jae-in Doe: Fugues in the Key of English Major .” Entropy, 3 Nov. 2017.
+ In anthologies
selected by Entropy editors as the best essay published in 2017 and
also in
+1. Bloomsbury Academic
– Advanced Creative Nonfiction A Writer’s Guide and Anthology , edited by Sean Prentiss and Joe Wilkins as series editors, with Sean Prentiss and Jessica Hendry Nelson as editors, Bloomsbury Academic, 2021.
+2. Wesleyan University Press
– BAX 2020: Best American Experimental Writing, edited by Seth Abramson and Jesse Damiani as series editors and Carmen Maria Machado and Joyelle McSweeney as guest editors, Wesleyan University Press, 2020.
+3. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018.
– Best American Nonrequired Reading (BANR), edited by Sheila Heti and the Students of 826 National, with Clara Sankey as managing editor, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018.
+ Reviewed and discussed
A list of selected publications that discuss “A Refuge for Jae-in Doe” and/or my #MeToo activism and work against rape culture:
+1 Reviewed
– Lê, Aimée. ” A Refuge for Jae-In Doe . ” NEON BOOKS, 3 Sept. 2018.
+2 Articles in newspapers, magazines, blogs (in reverse chronological order):
– Stanford Daily , 9 Jul. 2021.
– The Cut, New York Magazine , 30 Sept. 2019, interview on video.
– The Cut, New York Magazine , 30 Sept. 2019.
– The Chronicle of Higher Education , 11 May, 2018.
– The Washington Post , 10 May 2018.
– Stanford Daily , 26 Feb. 2018.
– “An open letter to Stanford on sexual harassment in academia.” Stanford Daily, 5
Dec. 2017.
– L.D. Burnett, “She Was Just Brilliant”: The Odyssey and the #MeToo Movement | Society for US Intellectual History. https://s-usih.org/2017/12/she-was-just-brilliant-the-odyssey-and-the-metoo-movement/
– The Stanford Daily , 2 Dec. 2017.
– Stanford Politics , 3 Dec. 2017
– KGED , 1 Dec. 2017.
– New Republic , 30 Nov. 2017.
– The Chronicle of Higher Education , 11 Nov. 2017.
– ” ASECS Executive Board Statement on Harassment and Abuse .” Graduate and Early
Career Caucus. American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 11 Nov. 2017.
– ” SEA Executive Committee Statement regarding Prof. Jay Fliegelman ,” 10 Nov.
2017
– INSIDE HIGHER ED , 9 Nov. 2017.
+3 Video interviews
– Schmalz, Julia. ” ‘My Professional World Has Gotten Smaller’: How sexual
harassment and assault distort scholars’ lives in the academy .” Chronicle of Higher
Education, 11 May 2018.
– A video made by a group of students at Lehigh University, May, 2018.
– A skype dialogue for an English literature class at Stockton University,
invited by Professor Emily Van Duyne, 23 Feb. 2018.
“Generation Hwabyung Telepathy” and “A Resume of Traumas,” published as part
of a Testimonial Tapestry in Asian American Literary Review, Special Issue on
Mental Health, 2017 .
Note by Seo-Young Chu
“Acts of Postmemory Han in the Key of the Children I Will Never Have.” Hawai’i
Review, Book 5, no. 87, Waterways, 2017.
” M’어머니 .” Kartika Review, 17, 15 Mar. 2017.
” CTRL+ALT, Culture Lab on Imagined Futures. “377 Broadway, New York,
Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, 40+ artists and scholars. I contributed an
essay I in response to the event, 12-13 Nov. 2016.
” Life 38 .” Mithila Review, The Journal of International Science Fiction and
Fantasy, Issue 5+6, July/August, 2016.
Two Poems: “What is the Maiden Name of Frankenstein’s Creature?” and “I Am
Korean American .” reprint. Mithila Review: A Speculative Arts & Culture Magazine,
Ajapa Sharma, Apr. 2016.
“Chogakpo Fantasia.” A visual essay, And/Or (Sophia Omni), vol. 5, Fall 2015.
http://www.and-or.org/contributors-volume-5.html .
“Chogakpo Fantasia” by Seo-Young Chu
“Breaking: Telepathic Passionflowers Are felt to Undergo Suffering.” Californica:
Portrait of Artist as an Organism, californica.net. Web, edited by Jason Tougaw. 10
May 2015. http://californica.net/2015/03/18/breaking-telepathic-passionflowers-are-felt-
to-undergo-suffering/ .
“-1, Other: A Review of Science Fiction, Alien Encounters, and the Ethics of
Posthumanism: Beyond the Golden Rule (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) by Elana
Gome.” Science Fiction Studies, 42.2, 2015.
Review of “Speculative Fictions: A Special Issue of American Literature,” edited by
Gerry Canavan and Priscilla Wald, Science Fiction Studies, 39.1, 2012.
” Science Fiction and Lyric Poetry .” Sense of Wonder, edited by Leigh Grossman .
Wildside Press , 2011.
” CHIMERICAL MOSAIC: SELF TEST KIT IN D# MINOR .” DIAGRAM 10.2 , 2010.
Web. 26 Apr. 2015.
” Hwabyung Fragments .” Segue. Online literary journal, 5.2, 2007. #korea #tigers
#cloning.
” Old Typewriter in a Field.” Yale Literary Magazine, 10.2, 1998 .
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS AND OTHER TALKS
Invited Lectures, Talks, Roundtable Discussions
Invited participant/interlocutor, “NOT HERE: ASIAN AMERICAN WRITERS ON GENERATIONAL TRAUMA.” Five Asian American writers read from their work & dialogue with one another on the issue of generational trauma. May 12 2022.
Invited participant/interlocutor, class on gender and sexual violence in Asian America, Professor Thaomi Michelle Dinh, University of Chicago, May 14 2022.
“Beyond the Catastrophic Origins of the Korean DMZ,” Queens College, May 6 2022
Guest lecture, Professor Michele Dauber’s class on campus assault, Stanford Law
School, 9 Feb. 2022.
“Imagining an Asian American Superhero of North Korean Origin: a Design Fiction,” presented at the SF and Geopolitical Aesthetics conference, the 2nd Sungkyun Annual International Forum on Cultural Studies , held at Sung Kyun Kwan University, Seoul, Korea, 10-11 Dec. 2021 (online).
“Roundtable on Korean Diasporas,” organized by Professor Dougal McNeill, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, 10 Nov. 2021 (online).
” A Transnational Dialogue on Science Fiction .” Nalo Hopkinson and Kim Bo-Young, moderated by Seo-Young Chu, with Sunyoung Park and Jungmin Lee also participating. Organized by Queens College and Kaya Press, 30 Oct. 2021 (online).
A conversation of the contributors (Thaomi Michelle Dinh, Brian Dan Trinh, Mashuq Mushtaq Deen, Seo-Young Chu, Margaret Rhee) to #WeToo, a collection of essays, poems, creative nonfiction, and experimental works, published by the Journal of Asian American Studies (2021). Organized by the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, 12 Jul 2021.
“Slow and Other Forms of Violence in The Three-Body Problem.” Brandeis Novel Symposium , 20-21Apr. 2018.
“Vocation and Catastrophe.” Keynote Speech at 2018 Conference on “Catastrophe! Living and Thinking through the End Time,” Indiana University, 30-31 Mar. 2018.
“The Square Root of Negative Korea,” a Special Guest Lecture Organized by Graduate Student English Association, University of California, Riverside, 8 Feb. 2018.
” Utopias Misplaced: The Cost of Outsourcing Dystopian Poetics to North Korea.” Lecture invited by Professor John Rogers . Franke Lectures in the Humanities, Whitney Humanities Center . Yale University, 20 Nov. 2014. The video can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PooQvoG-a5c
” The Spacetime of the DMZ: Quantum North Korea and Geomantic Black Holes .” Talk invited by Professor Brian McHale , Director of Project Narrative . The Ohio State University , 14 Oct. 2013.
Photo by Seo-Young Chu: From a distance,
viewed through telescopic lenses – the other Korea
” Global and Science-Fictional Dimensions of the Korean Demilitarized Zone .” Talk
invited by Professor Carol Dougherty and Professor Mingwei Song . Symposium on
Global Science Fiction . The Newhouse Center for the Humanities at Wellesley
College , 8-9 Mar. 2013.
“Literal and Figurative Aspects of the DMZ.” Lecture invited by the Hunter College
Graduate English Club. Hunter College, CUNY, 22 Mar. 2012.
30
Asian American Writers’ Workshop, AAWW TV Robot Coda, Intersection of Love,
Race, and Technology, 10 May 2018.
“Ex-DPRK Hallyu.” A draft chapter for Against Unification of the Koreas? Presented at Science-Fiction and Chinese Literature Workshop, Fudan University, at the invitation of International Center for the Studies of Chinese Civilization, Jun. 2016.
Renaissance Weekend . Invited participant. Monterey Bay, CA, 30 Jun.-4 Jul. 2012.
” North Korea and Science Fiction .” Lecture invited by Professor Sukhdev Sandhu .
Program in Asian/Pacific/American Studies . New York University, 28 Feb. 2011 .
On this presentation, a member of the audience posted a blog: Sean. “From
Authorial to Authoritarian: Notes on the Sci-Fi State, Idiosyncratic Ideology, and
Hyperrealpolitik.” MERE PSEUD BLOG ED. Web. 19 Mar. 2011.
MLA and Other Conferences
” Audio Description and Anti-Asian American Violence ,” given at 2022 MLA session, Anti-Asian American Violence, 8 Jan. 2022 (online).
“North Korean Vibes, Korean American Pronouns,” Language, Translation, and Global Scale, Oct. 26, 2017, ASAP/9, The Arts of the Present, 26-28 Oct. 2017 , hosted by the University of California, Berkeley.
” BIOATO: Beauty, Its Opposite, and Their Other s.” Queens College, CUNY, English
Honors Program Annual Conference. Co-organizer, performer, interlocutor,
designer, May (the 4 th !), 2016.
“Notes on How to Teach Videogames.” Faculty Seminar. Queens College English
Department. CUNY, 21 Apr. 2016.
“Against Unification of the Koreas.” Conference titled ” Against…Genre, History, Nation .”Queens College, CUNY, 27 Oct. 2014.
“From Desertitis to Jamais Vu: Symptoms of the Future of the Korean DMZ in Dance Dance Revolution by Cathy Park Hong.” Modern Language Association (MLA) Annual Convention. Chicago, IL, 11 Jan. 2014.
“The Poetics of Defection in the Artwork of Song Byeok and Sun Mu .” Session title: “Past and Future in North Korean Literature and Culture .” Modern Language Association (MLA) Annual Convention. Boston, MA, 4 Jan. 2013.
“Re-Humanizing the North Korean Chimera in I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK (싸이보그지
만 괜찮아).” New Jersey College English Association ( NJCEA ) 35 th Annual Spring
Conference. Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ, 14 Apr. 2012.
“The Detention of Ethnic Stereotypes in the Uncanny Valley .” Session arranged by
the Society for Critical Exchange . Northeast Modern Language Association
(NeMLA) Annual Conference. Rutgers University , New Brunswick, NJ, 8 Apr. 2011.
“A Poetics of Documentary Fantasy: Yong Soon Min’s Defining Moments .” Modern
Language Association (MLA) Annual Convention. Los Angeles, CA , 8 Jan. 2011 .
“Science-Fictional North Korea .” American Comparative Literature Association
(ACLA) Annual Conference. Cambridge, MA, 29 Mar. 2009.
“The DMZ and Other Ghostly ‘Heartlands’ of Korean America .” Association for
Asian American Studies (AAAS) Annual Conference. Chicago, IL, 19 Apr. 2008 .
” Robot Rights and the Uncanny Valley .” Panel arranged by the Literature and
Science Area of the American Culture Association. Popular Culture Association /
American Culture Association National Conference. Boston, MA. 7 Apr. 2007 .
“Science Fiction and Music.” Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA) 37 th
Annual Conference. White Plains, NY, 24 Jun. 2006.
32
“Maxine Hong Kingston’s Tripmaster Monkey .” Guest lecture for “Literature of
Migration and Ethnicity: The Case of the United States.” Harvard University.
Cambridge, MA, 10 Apr. 2006.
“Unnarratable Desire: Nightwood, A.D.’s Afterlife , and The Well of Loneliness.” Panel
arranged by the Society for the Study of Narrative Literature. Modern Language
Association (MLA) Annual Convention. Washington, DC, 30 Dec. 2005 .
“Hypnotic Ratiocination.” Panel arranged by the Poe Studies Association. MLA Annual Convention. Philadelphia, PA, 30 Dec. 2004 .
“Robot Onomatopoeia: D.H. Lawrence, Futurism, and Edison’s Talking Doll.” Modernist Studies Association (MSA), Sixth Annual Conference. Vancouver, BC, 24 Oct. 2004 .
“Dickinson and Mathematics.” Panel arranged by the Dickinson International Society. American Literature Association (ALA) Annual Conference. San Francisco, CA, 27 May 2004.
“Dislocation and Echolocation: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictee.” American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA) Annual Conference. Ann Arbor, MI, 16 Apr. 2004 .
” Instant Messenger Dialogue: An Experimental Performance .” Addressing Dialogue: An Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference . Harvard University. Cambridge, MA, 9 Apr. 2004.
“Voice, Identity, and Onomatopoeia: Dictee.” Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS) Annual Conference. Boston, MA, 27 Mar. 2004.
“Early American Knowledge.” American Literature Association (ALA) Annual Conference. Cambridge, MA, 22 May 2003 .
“Still Life of Humanoid Robot: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? And We Can Build You.” Still Life: A Graduate Student Conference. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 21 Mar. 2003.
“Narrating the Afterlife of World War I : Last and First Men.” Panel arranged by the MLA Discussion Group on Science Fiction and Utopian and Fantastic Literature. MLA Annual Convention. New York, NY, 27 Dec. 2002 .
” The League of Nations and ‘An Americanized Planet .’” American Studies
Association (ASA) Annual Convention. Houston, TX, 16 Nov. 2002 .
” The Displacement of Cyberspace .” ACLA Annual Conference. San Juan, PR, 12 Apr. 2002 .
“The Oracle and the Artifact: William Gibson’s Science Fiction.” 20 th -Century
Literature and Cultural Theory Colloquium. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 15
Mar. 2002.
“Cyberspace Materialized: From the Sprawl Series to the Bridge Trilogy .” ALA .
Conference on Contemporary American Literature. Santa Fe, NM, 27 Oct. 2001.
SERVICE
Service to the Academic Profession, New York/Queens Community, and Beyond
(Where to put creative writing workshop for kids?)
Departmental Service at Queens College, CUNY
Member of Honors Committee, 2015- .
English Department Representative, Annual Undergraduate Open House, fall and spring 2019
Member of Curriculum Committee, 2014- 2017? (Double check).
Member of Assessment Committee, 2013- 2014?.
Coordinator. English Department Honors Conference. “BIATO: Beauty, Its Opposite, and Their Others,” 4 May 2016.
Coordinator. English Department Honors Conference. “BIATO: Beauty, Its Opposite, and Their Others,” 4 May 2016.
English Department Representative, Freshman Reception, 27 Apr. 2014.
English Department Representative, Annual Undergraduate Open House, 3 Nov. 2013.
Member of Publicity/Publications Committee, 2010-2011.
Member of Honors Committee , 2010-2012.
Member of Committee on New Faculty, 2009-2011.
Member of Syllabus Committee, 2009-2010.
Member of Committee on Special Occasions, 2009-2010.
University and Departmental Service at Harvard
Adviser, Board of Freshman Advisers , 2007-2008, 2008-2009.
Examiner, Practice General Exams, Department of English and American Literature and Language, 9 Sept. 2005.
Coordinator, ” Addressing Dialogue: An Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference ,” 8-9 Apr. 2004.
35
Other Professional Service
Editorial Assistant, A New Literary History of America . Eds. Greil Marcus and
Werner Sollors, Cambridge: Harvard UP, Sept. 2009.
Panel Organizer, ” The Place of Music in Science Fiction and Fantasy .” MLA Annual
Convention. Philadelphia, PA, 29 Dec. 2006.
Member of Executive Committee, 2003-2007; Chair, 2006; Secretary, 2005. MLA Discussion Group on Science Fiction and Utopian and Fantastic Literature .
HONORS
Dean’s Research Enhancement Grant for “Science-Fictional North Korea,” Queens
College, CUNY, 2014.
PSC-CUNY Research Foundation Award (Tradition B), ” The Geomantic Significance of the Korean DMZ ,” Funding for travel and research in Korea, 2011 .
PSC-CUNY Research Foundation Award, “Science-Fictional North Korea,” 2010 .
A “leaf” of a “tree” at the DMZ
Graduate Society Fellowship for Dissertation Completion, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) , Harvard University, 2006-2007.
Derek Bok Certificate of Distinction in Teaching, Harvard University, 2006 .
Merit Fellowship for Dissertation Research. GSAS, Harvard University, 2005-2006.
Derek Bok Certificate of Distinction in Teaching. Harvard University, 2004 .
Fall Research Grant . Graduate Student Council , Harvard University, 2004.
Derek Bok Certificate of Distinction in Teaching. Harvard University, 2003 .
Smith Memorial Prize for essay, “The Fourth Dimension of Marcel Duchamp’s Large Glass,” Stanford University, 2000.
Herson Prize for outstanding work in the English major, Yale University, 1999.
McLaughlin Scholarship for excellence in composition and the study of English
literature, Yale University, 1998.
Curtis Prize for literary or rhetorical work in the junior year, Yale University, 1998.
Riggs Prize for distinguished work in the Directed Studies Program , Yale.
University, 1996.
LANGUAGES
37
French (proficient).
Latin (basic).
Korean (basic/intermediate/ever-evolving).
Asemic 1 (ever-evolving).
…………………………………..
Poe
“Dickinson and Mathematics”
“Postmemory Han”
essay in New Literary History of America
SF and lyric poetry
Chimerical Mosaic: Self Test Kit
Do Metaphors Dream of Literal Sleep? (Harvard UP)
Science-Fictional North Korea
“I, Stereotype: Detained in the Uncanny Valley” (Techno-Orientalism)
Mithila Review
“Generation Hwabyung Telepathy”
HR
“M’어머니“
“A Refuge for Jae-in Doe: Fugues in the Key of English Major” (originally published in Entropy, November 2017; reprinted in Best American Nonrequired Reading 2018, BAX 2020: Best American Experimental Writing 2020, Advanced Creative Nonfiction: A Writers’ Guide and Anthology)
other links incl.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/qc_pubs/503/
https://longreads.com/picks/a-refuge-for-jae-in-doe-fugues-in-the-key-of-english-major/
https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:42789/
“After ‘A Refuge for Jae-in Doe”: A Social Media Chronology‘” (ASAP/J, 2018)
“Free Indirect Suicide: An Unfinished Fugue in H Minor” (The Rumpus, 2019; listed among “Notable Essays & Literary Nonfiction” in The Best American Essays 2020)
https://doi.org/10.17613/6p2b-kw36
Chu, Seo-Young. “Emoji Poetics.” ASAP/Journal, vol. 4 no. 2, 2019, p. 290-292. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/asa.2019.0020.
Art Museum
Queens Memory?
“Imagining an Asian American Superhero of North Korean Origin”
Courses Taught at Queens College, CUNY (not including MA thesis projects and independent studies)
English 636: “History of Literary Criticism” (graduate course): spring 2013, spring 2014, fall 2016, spring 2019, spring 2020, spring 2021, spring 2022.
English 379 VT: Topics in Transnational Postcolonial Literature: The Korean DMZ and Its Others”: fall 2013, fall 2015, spring 2017, fall 2021.
English 314 VT: “Studies in Popular Genre”: fall 2020, scheduled for fall 2022
English 244: “Theory”: spring 2020, spring 2021, fall 2021, spring 2022, scheduled for fall 2022.
English 244: “Theory”: Sections 1 & 2: fall 2019
English 243: “Genre”: Sections 1 & 2: spring 2017.
English 170W: “Introduction to Literary Study”: fall 2016, fall 2020.
English 170H: “Introduction to Literary Study”: fall 2016.
English 399W: “Honors Seminar” Sections 1 & 2: fall 2015, spring 2016
English 336/305/300: “Forms of Fiction”/”Studies in Literature”/”Senior Seminar”: spring 2015.
English 243: “Genre”: spring 2014, spring 2015.
English 382: “Aspects of Literary Criticism”: spring 2013, fall 2014.
English 781: “Special Seminar in Science Fiction.” (graduate course): spring 2012, spring 2015, spring 2016.
English 255: “Global Literatures in English”: spring 2010, fall 2010, spring 2011, fall 2013.
English 369: “Asian American Literature”: spring 2011, spring 2019.
English 391W VT: “Senior Seminar on Science Fiction”: spring 2010, spring 2011, spring 2012, fall 2013, fall 2014, spring 2019, fall 2021.
English 395W: “Science Fiction”: fall 2009, fall 2010.
English 165W and/or English 165H: “Introduction to Poetry”: fall 2009, fall 2010, spring 2012, spring 2013, fall 2014.
————————————————————–
“The Korean DMZ and Its Others”
Prof. Seo-Young Chu
We explore the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) as an inaccessible dream-scape, a site of conflict, a postcolonial artifact, a tourist destination, an international border, a sanctuary for wildlife, a living injury to the land, a minefield, and a complicated figure of speech. In addition to maps, brochures, souvenirs, photographs, and historical accounts, texts on the syllabus will include “DMZ-American” poems by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Don Mee Choi, Franny Choi, Cathy Park Hong, Suji Kwock Kim, and Mia You; Y0UNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIESʼs digital narrative “Miss DMZ”; Yong Soon Minʼs visual essay Defining Moments; the 2000 film J.S.A.; clips from the 2019-2020 TV series Crash Landing on You; and propaganda from both/all sides of the zone. Readings will be accompanied by insights from theorists such as Gloria E. Anzaldúa and Edward Said. Topics encompass translation, war, displacement, nostalgia, globalization, Orientalism, architecture, borderlands, nationhood, theme parks, the “aura” of the DMZ, the future of the DMZ, the relationship of the DMZ to the Korean diaspora, and ways in which studying the Korean DMZ might illuminate similar situations elsewhere throughout the world.
LEARNING GOALS
– To study the ways in which the DMZ has operated as a complicated figure of speech (e.g., as a metonym for North Korea; as a symbol of peaceful reunification; as a metaphor for the divided psyche of Korean Americans; etc…).
– To learn how to use (in one’s own writing) and to identify and analyze (in others’ writings) a range of rhetorical devices and figures (e.g., metaphor, simile, personification, anaphora).
– To trace how and why the DMZ and representations of the DMZ have evolved over the decades.
– To apply lessons learned from the Korean DMZ to similar situations elsewhere in the world.
– To try to understand the ways in which colonialism, war, trauma, hope, and competing ideologies have resonated throughout the literal and figurative dimensions of the Korean DMZ.
—————–
English 399W-1:
“Beauty, Its Opposite, and Their Others”
Prof. Seo-Young Chu
What makes a work of literature beautiful? When you read a poem whose lyricism causes you to sigh, or when you luxuriate in the pleasure of narrative suspense while reading a detective novel of ingenious design, what exactly is happening between the words on the page and the neurons in your body? Does “beauty” have an antonym–and, if so, what is the name for beauty’s opposite? Under what circumstances might one create an appealing representation of an appalling reality? Does art exist simply for its own sake, or is art importantly useful? Is it possible for a work of art to be both ugly and aesthetically valuable? What does it mean to judge a work of art? Can a standard of taste–an agreement concerning that which is agreeable–perform the work of a social contract? Is political action conceivable without aesthetic inspiration? How has our perception of aesthetics been transformed by factors like technology and globalization?
Such questions will guide us (and occasionally elude us) in this two-semester Honors Seminar as we investigate a range of aesthetic philosophies as well as a variety of texts (both natural and artificial) evocative of diverse aesthetic reactions. Objects of interpretation will encompass not only verbal artifacts (literary fiction, theory, verse, manifestos) but also visual images (e.g., photographs, paintings, sculptures…the afterimages that shimmer before us when we shut our eyes). Other possible “texts” include multisensory experiences such as watching a film, visiting a museum, solving a puzzle, consuming a meal, having a dream, encountering a fragrant garden, describing a texture, purchasing a commodity, wandering through a cityscape, viewing/listening to a music video, guessing how a narrative will conclude, and creating an original work of art.
In the spring half of the yearlong Honors Seminar, we will continue to develop our ideas and arguments about beauty, its opposite, and their others. You will revise the paper that you wrote in the fall semester into an Honors Essay. In addition, you will adapt your Honors Essay into a presentation that you will deliver at an Honors Conference to be organized by you and your colleagues. Class time will be devoted to workshopping essays and conference papers, studying for the Honors Exam, and engaging in the same dialogues — the same topics and questions — that engross our attention right now. For example: How might neuroscience elucidate literary aesthetics? In what ways have globalization and technology affected our senses and sensibilities? Does beauty have an antonym, and if so: what is it? Has the uncanny valley changed over time? To what extent is it possible for sculpture to achieve the effect of music, or for prose to achieve the effect of emoji? Can a standard of taste (an agreement concerning that which is “agreeable”) perform the work of a social contract (i.e. a social “agreement”)? In our encounters with appealingly rendered portraits of appalling realities, did you find yourselves unsettled by the dissonance between form (e.g., Swift’s well-wrought rhyming couplets) and content? In what ways does an aesthetic experience differ from an aesthetic object? Is political action conceivable without lyric inspiration? Is the category of the sublime capable of illuminating psychological trauma? What does it mean to defend poetry, to defend art, to defend the humanities? Finally, what have you learned from studying aesthetics, and what shape might be taken by the afterlife of this seminar?
——
Courses Taught at Harvard University
“American Visions and Voices,” History and Literature, 2008-2009.
“American Characters,” History and Literature, 2007-2008.
“Transnational Modernism,” English and American Literature and Language, fall 2007.
“Science Fiction,” English and American Literature and Language, spring 2006.
“Lesbian Gothic,” English and American Literature and Language, spring 2005.
“The Asian American Literary Canon,” English and American Literature and Language, fall 2004.
“Asian American Literature,” English and American Literature and Language, spring 2004.
Undergraduate Theses Supervised at Harvard University
“The Hero We Create: 9/11 and the Reinvention of Batman,” Joshua Feblowitz, History and Literature, 2008-2009.
“Classical Music and Film: An Analysis of How 2001: A Space Odyssey Popularized Also Sprach Zarathustra in American Society,” Kyle Wiggins, History and Literature, 2008-2009.
“Robert Johnson and His Journey through Modern Prose and Poetry,” Aubrie Pagano, History and Literature, 2007-2008.
“Giving Back the Name: Sanora Babb’s Insight into Feminism and Environmentalism,” Rikka Strong, History and Literature, 2007-2008.
Sections Taught at Harvard University
“Literature of Migration and Ethnicity: The Case of the United States,” Professor Werner Sollors, English and American Literature and Language, spring 2006.
“The Nineteenth-Century Novel,” Professor Elaine Scarry, English and American Literature and Language, spring 2005.
“Putting Modernism Together,” Professor Daniel Albright, Core Curriculum, fall 2004.
“Modern British Fiction,” Professor Peter Nohrnberg, English and American Literature and Language, spring 2004.
“The Elements of Rhetoric,” Professor James Engell, English and American Literature and Language, fall 2003.
——————————————————————–
Sections Taught at Stanford University
“American Literature and Culture to 1855,” Professor Jay Fliegelman (who sexually harassed and raped me while I was his advisee, teaching assistant, and teaching observee), winter 2000. I had just turned 22 years old. I was naive and inexperienced. I was a first-year graduate student, new to the profession, new to teaching, new to California, new to Stanford. He was tenured. He was powerful. He was in his 50s. He had been a Stanford institution for decades. This is disjointed because I’m re-living it all over again. Shortly after he violated me, I was hospitalized. Shortly after I was discharged from the hospital, I gave a guest lecture on Seneca Falls and women’s rights. His response was to tell me I forgot to mention women’s right to sexual pleasure. There are gaps here because trauma is nonlinear, trauma broke my sense of time. At some point Stanford conducted an investigation. As a result of the investigation, which was a brutal experience, Stanford punished my abuser by suspending him for two years without pay. Some of his colleagues had the audacity to blame me for the whole situation. I’m angry. I’m experimenting with incorporating my anger into this CV. The truth is that my career started with rape. My career is a product of rape. My career has been shaped by rape. My sense of who I am as an academic: shaped by rape. The gaps in my CV are trauma-generated plot holes that lead to Northern California in the year 2000.
SCIENCE FICTION
The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/how-the-memory-police-makes-you-see
Cover Interview by ROROTOKO. ” The Double Lives of Metaphors, Robots, and
Other Science-Fictional/Lyric Figures .” Cutting-Edge Intellectual Interview, edited
by Erind Pajo. Web. 20 Jun. 2011.
Radio Interview with Jim Fleming. “Seo-Young Chu on Do Metaphors Dream of
Literal Sleep?” Program Title: The Language of Science Fiction . To the Best of Our
Knowledge ( TTBOOK ). Distributed by PRI Public Radio International, Web. 25
Sept. 2011 .
*note to self: other links here*
LIVING IN QUEENS DURING A PANDEMIC
SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND RAPE CULTURE
Many thanks for your email–and for the excellent work you’ve been doing. Yes, I would like to help.
Here are some links you might find relevant (in roughly chronological order):
“A Refuge for Jae-in Doe: Fugues in the Key of English Major”. Author(s):: Seo-Young Chu (November 3, 2017).
https://entropymag.org/a-refuge-for-jae-in-doe-fugues-in-the-key-of-english-major/
“Ghost From the Past: Professor’s essay about being harassed and raped by her late adviser sparks calls for public acknowledgment of the reasons for his past suspension from Stanford and the renaming of a disciplinary society mentorship award that bore his name.” By Colleen Flaherty (November 9, 2017).
“2 Women Say Stanford Professors Raped Them Years Ago.” By Katherine Mangan (NOVEMBER 11, 2017).
https://www.chronicle.com/article/2-women-say-stanford-professors-raped-them-years-ago/
“English faculty told to redirect press questions on sexual assault allegations to University communications.” By Brian Contreras (Nov. 13, 2017, 1:00 a.m.).
“Sexual Harassment and Assault in Higher Ed: What’s Happened Since Weinstein.” By Nell Gluckman , Brock Read, Bianca Quilantan, and Katherine Mangan (NOVEMBER 13, 2017).
“Editorial Board: Let’s hold faculty to a higher standard on sexual assault.” Opinion by Vol. 252 Editorial Board (Nov. 14, 2017, 3:00 a.m.).
“Here’s What Sexual Harassment Looks Like in Higher Education.” By Katherine Mangan (NOVEMBER 16, 2017).
https://www.chronicle.com/article/heres-what-sexual-harassment-looks-like-in-higher-education/
“Open Letter from Alumni to Stanford: Not in Our Name.” by OP-ED (NOVEMBER 22, 2017).
https://stanfordpolitics.org/2017/11/22/open-letter-alumni-stanford-not-in-our-name/
“‘A Professor Is Kind of Like a Priest’: Two recent cases reveal how the structure of American graduate schools enables sexual harassment and worse.” By Irene Hsu and Rachel Stone (Nov. 30, 2017).
https://newrepublic.com/article/146049/a-professor-kind-like-priest
“Stanford: Sexual misconduct revelation exposes storied professor’s secret.” (Dec. 1, 2017).
“Behind the Fliegelman sexual misconduct investigation.” By Fangzhou Liu (Dec. 2, 2017, 3:37 p.m.).
https://stanforddaily.com/2017/12/02/behind-the-fliegelman-sexual-misconduct-investigation/
“Former students of Jay Fliegelman describe inappropriate relationships, sexual misconduct in 1980s, 1990s.” By RUAIRÍ ARRIETA-KENNA (DECEMBER 3, 2017).
https://stanfordpolitics.org/2017/12/03/jay-fliegelman-sexual-misconduct/
“An open letter to Stanford on sexual harassment in academia.” Opinion by Gloria Fisk and From the Community (Dec. 5, 2017, 3:00 a.m.).
https://stanforddaily.com/2017/12/05/an-open-letter-to-stanford-on-sexual-harassment-in-academia/
NOTE: Professor Alex Woloch has yet to respond.
“What Happens When Sex Harassment Disrupts Victims’ Academic Careers.” By Nell Gluckman (DECEMBER 6, 2017).
“Former Grad Students: Our Professors Raped Us.” By Vanessa Rancaño (Dec 7, 2017).
“‘Fairly Normal and Routine’: 50 Years of Sexual Violence at Stanford.” By RUAIRÍ ARRIETA-KENNA & ROXY BONAFONT (JANUARY 31, 2018).
https://stanfordpolitics.org/2018/01/31/sexual-violence-cover-story/
“Provost, General Counsel offer personal contributions to anti-sexual assault organization after Stanford denies Fliegelman victim’s request for donation.” By Alex Tsai (Feb. 26, 2018, 12:20 a.m.).
“After ‘A Refuge for Jae-in Doe’: A Social Media Chronology.” By Seo-Young Chu (March 15, 2018).
https://asapjournal.com/after-a-refuge-for-jae-in-doe-a-social-media-chronology/
“Academia’s #MeToo moment: ‘I’m really struck by how endemic this is’: ‘There isn’t a day in my life when I haven’t been eaten away by it in some way.’” By Nick Anderson (May 10, 2018).
“‘My Professional World Has Gotten Smaller’: How sexual harassment and assault distort scholars’ lives in the academy.” By Julia Schmalz (MAY 11, 2018).
https://www.chronicle.com/article/my-professional-world-has-gotten-smaller/
“Stanford One Year After #MeToo: How Stanford’s Response Failed Victims of Sexual Assault.” By KYLE WANG (JUNE 14, 2019).
“How #MeToo Helped Seo-Young Chu Name Her Harasser — Testimonies New York Magazine” (Sep 29, 2019).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tVhymU3DcM&list=PLXQRPSEGHTBiFsePIdraK3KNHvXQ1iFaM&index=7
“Was It Worth It?” By Irin Carmon and Amelia Schonbek Additional reporting by Sarah Jones (Sept. 30, 2019).
https://www.thecut.com/2019/09/coming-forward-about-sexual-assault-and-what-comes-after.html
“Title IX at Stanford: A timeline of recent events.” By Emma Talley, Kate Selig, Sarina Deb, Daniel Wu, Ujwal Srivastava, Lauryn Johnson, Anastasiia Malenko and Danielle Echeverria (June 9, 2020, 11:35 p.m.).
https://stanforddaily.com/2020/06/09/title-ix-at-stanford-a-timeline-of-recent-events/
“Stanford removes library collection, brick honoring affiliates accused of sexual misconduct.” By Cameron Ehsan, Victoria Hsieh and Kathryn Zheng (July 9, 2021, 5:10 p.m.).
https://stanforddaily.com/2021/07/09/stanford-removes-library-collection-brick/
Seo-Young Chu on sexual violence at Stanford and Korean American # MeToo (March 3, 2022).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-NJRJNXRDU
A FEW RELEVANT THREADS ON TWITTER:
https://twitter.com/seoyoung_chu/status/1490344790839463936?s=20&t=hLixVyJTBj8GK5MLpn9HCg
https://twitter.com/seoyoung_chu/status/1538848196788731904?s=20&t=MXDLmJm83X9aeKs-fZolig
https://twitter.com/seoyoung_chu/status/1539274886421614593
https://twitter.com/seoyoung_chu/status/1539710582047244288
Many thanks.
Best,
Seo-Young
Many thanks.
Best,
Seo-Young
“A Refuge for Jae-in Doe” has been cited/discussed in/on/by (in alphabetical order—some are brief citations, others are lengthy discussions, and I’m still trying to figure out what counts as “press/media”)
- American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS) The ASECS and the GCS changed the name of mentorship awards. “… On behalf of our Society, we accept this charge, and we thank Professor Chu and our colleagues for their eloquence and passion in urging us forward.“ – ASECS Board
- https://asecsgradcaucus.wordpress.com/2017/11/11/asecsexecutive-board-statement-on-harassment-and-abuse/amp/, 10 Nov. 2017
- https://asecsgradcaucus.wordpress.com/2017/11/12/statement/, 12 Nov. 2017
- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GgKlsC7DvVLIwgzq-uK5Cbyuq1lAGvYgUiEKy_DTAZg/edit, 10 Nov. 2017
- https://aaww.org/keeping-tabs-out-of-the-darkness/, 10 Nov. 2017
- https://www.clubfreetime.com/new-york-city-nyc/free-discussion/2021-07- 12/event/519013, 12 Jul. 2021
- Chicago Review, 28 Jan 2022
- The Chronicle of Higher Education
- https://www.chronicle.com/article/sexual-harassment-and-assault-in-higher-ed-whats-happened-since-weinstein/, 13 Nov. 2017
- https://www.chronicle.com/article/what-happens-when-sex-harassment-disrupts-victims-academic-careers/, 6 Dec. 2017
- https://www.chronicle.com/article/2-Women-Say-Stanford/241749, 11 Nov. 2017
- https://www.chronicle.com/article/My-Professional-World-Has/243377, 11 May 2018
- Cornell University “Proceedings of the Consensual Relationship Policy Committee,” 1 May 2018
- https://poets.org/event/wetoo, 12 Jul 2021
- KQED, 7 Dec. 2017 “… Fliegelman was suspended for two years, …. Then he
went back to teaching at Stanford. He was later honored multiple times — at … “Jayfest” … when the university acquired his rare book collection, … The university also named an award in his honor, … In 2016, the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies also named a mentorship award after Fliegelman. The society renamed it after hearing from Chu…”
- The Literary Hub, 18 Apr. 2022. “The Impossible, Crucial Task of Teaching About Rape as a Survivor” by Emily Van Duyne. “Chu turned to the sonnet to describe her experience of being first stalked, then transformed from a human woman into an object. Like others before her—Anne Boleyn, Shakespeare’s “Dark Lady”—she transforms, in the course of the sonnet, from a human into a literary device, a blazon: a body stripped of its parts, to be cataloged as a series of rare and beautiful objects”
- Longreads
- The Margins (AAWW)
- The Mercury News, 1 Dec. 2017 “… But this month, after an explosive series of revelations in an online publication and on Facebook, his legacy — and an elite university’s role in promoting it — has been tumbled upside down, exposing a dark underside of how powerful faculty at private institutions can escape public scorn…“
- Ms. Magazine, 16 Mar. 2018
- Neon Books, 3 Sep. 2018 “… One of the paradoxes of trauma is that it usually begins after a person is out of immediate danger. Like an echo, harm may take time to reach us.“
- New Chaucer Studies: Pedagogy and Profession, Autumn 2021
- New York Magazine
- https://www.thecut.com/2019/09/coming-forward-about-sexual-assault-and- what-comes-after.html, 30 Sep.2019
- Video (separate from the article), 30 Sep. 2019
- https://stanforddaily.com/2017/12/02/behind-the-fliegelman-sexual-misconduct-investigation/, 2 Dec. 2017
- https://stanforddaily.com/2017/12/05/an-open-letter-to-stanford-on-sexual harassment-in-academia/, 5 Dec. 2017
- https://stanforddaily.com/2020/05/18/facing-criticism-for-victim-blaming-stanford-revises-sexual-harassment-guidelines-webpage-but-criticism-persists/, 18 May 2017
- https://stanforddaily.com/2018/02/26/provost-general-counsel-offer-personal-contributions-to-anti-sexual-assault-organization-after-stanford-denies-fliegelman-victims-request-for-donation/, 26 Feb. 2017
- https://stanforddaily.com/2018/10/09/public-letter-in-support-of-ford-gains-over-1000-signatures/, 9 Oct. 2018
- https://stanforddaily.com/2021/07/09/stanford-removes-library-collection-brick/, 9 Jul. 2019 “…Stanford on Tuesday moved to strip the name of deceased English professor Jay Fliegelman Ph.D. ’77, who was accused of sexual assault, from his namesake library collection. The renaming was prompted by four years of advocacy from alumni and law professor Michele Dauber… Former graduate student Seo-Young Chu M.A. ’01 said she was sexually harassed and assaulted by Fliegelman, her dissertation advisor, while studying at Stanford….“
- Stanford Politics, 3 Dec. 2017
- https://stanfordpolitics.org/2019/06/14/stanford-one-year-after-metoo-how-stanfords-response-failed-victims-of-sexual-assault/
- https://stanfordpolitics.org/2017/12/03/jay-fliegelman-sexual-misconduct/
- https://stanfordpolitics.org/2017/11/22/open-letter-alumni-stanford-not-in-our-name/
- https://stanfordpolitics.org/2018/01/31/sexual-violence-cover-story/ “the resulting sanction was even said to be the university’s most serious punishment to date, though it wasn’t made public at the time. Stanford suspended English professor Jay Fliegelman and banned him from the department for two years, but few other than the faculty and students who were close to him seemed to know or care why. His graduate student advisee, Seo-Young Chu, had formally accused him of rape. The matter was handled quietly, and the university ultimately behaved as if the rape had never happened, allowing Fliegelman to continue to meet with students during his suspension. After he died in 2007, a glowing memorial resolution was published the next year which described a triumphant career and offered no mention of his censure, let alone the accusation against him. Chu’s memory wasn’t quite so short. In 2017, she published a widely-discussed creative nonfiction piece on the blog Entropy relating her experiences and finally making Fliegelman’s behavior public knowledge. At her request, Stanford also finally published a summary of their 2000 investigation. But for 17 years, that story went untold. The secrecy with which the Fliegelman case was handled raises the question of how many more sexual assault allegations have been adjudicated behind closed doors. How those proceedings operate has been an ongoing source of controversy at Stanford.”
- Still gathering links/info
