https://cuny.is/seoyoungchu
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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, ungrading

Website

https://hcommons.org/members/schu

Education

B.A. Yale, 1999
M.A. Stanford, 2001
Ph.D. Harvard, 2007

Academic Interests

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, ungrading

CV

CV

Seo-Young Chu

Associate Professor

Department of English 

Queens College, CUNY

seoyoung.chu1@qc.cuny.edu

Education

B.A. Yale, 1999
M.A. Stanford, 2001
Ph.D. Harvard, 2007

Interests

The 20th century, the 21st century, the 22nd century, aesthetics, Asian American studies, close reading, cultural theory, design fiction, digital writing, disability, DMZ studies, genders, genre, the gothic, han/hwabyung, the Koreas, lyric poetry, #MeTooAcademia, mental illness, modernism, rape studies, rhetoric, science fiction, theory, trauma, ungrading

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS 

“Closely Associated: The Metonymic Logic of Rape Culture.” Theorizing Contemporary Rape Studies. Under contract.

“Describing DICTEE.” Paideuma Vol. 49. Forthcoming.

“Differentially Unwell: On Mimi Khúc’s dear elia.” The Los Angeles Review of Books. March 5, 2024.

“You Are Invited: A Conversation on Sexual Violence in Asian America.” Co-authored with Thaomi Michelle Dinh (lead author). Amerasia Journal. January 18, 2024.

“Survivor-Shaped Specters and Gaps.” Callisto. January 11, 2024.

“Excerpts from an Anti-Standardized ‘수능’: A Design-Fictional Approach to Korea.” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, volume. 34, number 2. Edited by Haerin Shin and Sang-Keun Yoo. Fall 2023.

“Jogakpo Window (7 feet x 4 feet).” ctrl+v. Issue 12. 2023.

“I, Discomfort Woman: A Fugue in F Minor.” The Margins/Asian American Writers’ Workshop. February 21, 2023.

  • Nominated for Best of the Net.

“Dear Stanford: You must reckon with your history of sexual violence.” The Stanford Daily. July 2022.

“Imagining an Asian American Superhero of North Korean Origin.” Asian American Literature in Transition: 1996-2020. Edited by Betsy Huang and Victor Roman Mendoza. Cambridge University Press. 2021.

“I See You and You See Me.” Contributing writer (see the section on “Seo-Young”). Queens Theatre. 2021.

“Tiny Art Museum for the Floater in My Eye.” ASAP/Journal. Volume 5, Number 5. September 2020.

“Translator of Soliloquies: Fugues in the Key of Dissociation.” Chapbook. Black Warrior Review 46.2. Spring 2020.

“Dream Life of Waste: Archaeologies of the Soul in the Key of Capitalism.” Nat. Brut. Issue 13. Fall 2019.

  • Nominated for Best of the Net.

“Dream of the Ambassador, 12/21/2016,” “The Lyric We,” “Two Koreas, in the Key of Emily Dickinson” (poems). Queens Review/Newtown Literary, Issue 14, Spring/Summer 2019. Poems performed at the 9th Annual New York City Poetry Festival, July 27th + 28th, 2019, Governors Island.

“Are Postmodernism and #MeToo Incompatible?” The Chronicle Review, Chronicle of Higher Education. Jun 14, 2019.

“Emoji Poetics.” ASAP/Journal. Volume 4, Number 2. Published by Johns Hopkins University Press. May 2019. 

“Free Indirect Suicide: An Unfinished Fugue in H Minor.” The Rumpus. March 26th, 2019. 

  • Listed among “Notable Essays & Literary Nonfiction” in The Best American Essays 2020.
  • Nominated for a Best of the Net 2019 award

“The DMZ Responds.” Telos. Special Issue on Korea. Ed. Haerin Shin. Fall 2018.

“After ‘A Refuge for Jae-in Doe’: A Social Media Chronology.” ASAP Journal. March 15, 2018.

“A Refuge for Jae-in Doe: Fugues in the Key of English Major,” Entropy. November 3, 2017. 

“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: Open In Emergency. Ed. Mimi Khúc. 2017.

“M’어머니.” Kartika Review. March 2017.

“Acts of Postmemory Han in the Key of the Children I Will Never Have.” Hawaii Review. 2017.

“What is the maiden name of Frankenstein’s creature?” and “I am Korean American.” Mithila Review. 2016.

“Life 38.” Mithila Review. Aug 8, 2016.

“I, Stereotype: Detained in the Uncanny Valley.” Techno-Orientalism: Imagining Asia in Speculative Fiction, History, and Media. Edited by David S. Roh, Betsy Huang, and Greta A. Niu. Rutgers University Press. 2015.

“√-1, Other.” Science Fiction Studies. Vol. 42. Number 2. July 2015.

“Chogakpo Fantasia.” And/Or. 2015. 

“Science-Fictional North Korea: A Defective History.” Deletion: The Open Access Online Forum In Science Fiction Studies. Ed. Marleen Barr. April 2014.

“Welcome to The Vegas Pyongyang.” Science Fiction Studies. 39.3. Special issue focusing on globalization. Eds. David Higgins and Rob Latham. 2012.

“Science Fiction and Lyric Poetry.” Sense of Wonder: A Century of Science Fiction. Edited by Leigh Grossman. 2011.

Do Metaphors Dream of Literal Sleep? A Science-Fictional Theory of Representation. Harvard University Press. 2011.

“CHIMERICAL MOSAIC: SELF TEST KIT IN D# MINOR,” DIAGRAM 10.2. 2010.

“Dystopian Surface, Utopian Dream: Wittman Ah Sing Foresees Postethnic Humanity.” A New Literary History of America. Eds. 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.” Ed. Stephen Hong Sohn. 2008. 

  • Note: “Science Fiction and Postmemory Han” has been cited by Amanda Gorman in Call Us What We Carry.

“Hwabyung Fragments.” Segue 5.2. 2006.

“Dickinson and Mathematics.” The Emily Dickinson Journal 15.1. 2006.

“Hypnotic Ratiocination.” The Edgar Allan Poe Review.Vol. 6, No. 1 (SPRING 2005).

WORKS IN PROGRESS

“A Refuge for Jae-in Doe and Other Fugues”: an experimental memoir.

“Cognitively Estranging Referents—From Rape Culture to the Korean DMZ.”

Video on audio descriptions and anti-Asian violence.

SELECTED VIDEOS

“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 CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS, TALKS, PERFORMANCES, ROUNDTABLES, INTERVIEWS

Invited Speaker, University of Zurich, Switzerland, scheduled for summer 2024.

Co-Organizer, Harvard Diversity Discussions, Race and Mental Health: Cultural Conceptions. Organized by Jenny Korn (MPP ’98), Ngozi Okose (ALM ’18), Darold Cuba (MPA ’21), Dr. Seo-Young Chu (AM 2003 PHD 2007 RDI 2008), and Eisha Khan (ALM ’22). Thursday, November 9, 2023, 5-6 pm Eastern. Zoom.

Storytelling Slam Finalist, “Calling on the Power of My Mother’s Voice: A Code-Switching Performance,” Harvard Asian American Alumni Alliance, fall 2023. Cambridge, MA.

Invited participant/interlocutor, Sexual Violence in Asian America, Professor Thaomi Michelle Dinh, Stanford University. May 2023.

Invited participant/interlocutor, One In Five. Professor Michele Dauber and Professor Alyssa Burgart. Stanford University. February 2023.

Invited participant/interlocutor, “NOT HERE: ASIAN AMERICAN WRITERS ON GENERATIONAL TRAUMA.” Organized by Joan Kwon Glass. 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.  

”Audio Description and Anti-Asian American Violence,” given at 2022 MLA session, Anti-Asian American Violence, 8 Jan. 2022 (online).

“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 dialogue among 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 July 2021.

Panel on Godzilla. Panelist. Big Apple Comic Con. Spring 2019.

Asian American Writers’ Workshop, AAWW TV Robot Coda, Intersection of Love,

Race, and Technology, 10 May 2018.

“Slow and Other Forms of Violence in The Three-Body Problem.” Brandeis Novel Symposium , 20-21 Apr. 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.

“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.

“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.

”BIOATO: Beauty, Its Opposite, and Their Others.” Queens College, CUNY, English Honors Program Annual Conference. Co-organizer, performer, interlocutor, designer, May (the 4th!), 2016.

“Notes on How to Teach Videogames.” Faculty Seminar. Queens College English

Department. CUNY, 21 Apr. 2016.

”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

“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 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.

”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.

“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.

Renaissance Weekend. Invited participant. Monterey Bay, CA, 30 Jun.-4 Jul. 2012.

“Re-Humanizing the North Korean Chimera in I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK (싸이보그지만 괜찮아).” New Jersey College English Association (NJCEA) 35th Annual Spring Conference. Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ, 14 Apr. 2012.

“Literal and Figurative Aspects of the DMZ.” Lecture invited by the Hunter College Graduate English Club. Hunter College, CUNY, 22 Mar. 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.

”North Korea and Science Fiction.” Lecture invited by Professor Sukhdev Sandhu. Program in Asian/Pacific/American Studies. New York University, 28 Feb. 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) 37th

Annual Conference. White Plains, NY, 24 Jun. 2006.

“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.” 20th-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.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE 

COURSES TAUGHT (once, twice, or more) AT QUEENS COLLEGE, CUNY

  • English 151W: Readings in British Literature 
  • English 165H: Introduction to Poetry
  • English 170W: Introduction to Literary Study
  • English 243: Genre
  • English 244: Theory
  • English 255: Global Literatures in English
  • English 314: Theorizing Popular Culture
  • English 369: Asian American Literature
  • English 379: The Korean DMZ and Its Others
  • English 391W: Science Fiction
  • English 399H: Honors Seminar on Aesthetics: Beauty, Its Opposites, and their Others
  • English 636: History of Literary Criticism
  • English 733: Asian American Literature

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. 

PRESS/MEDIA APPEARANCES 

“Professor Spotlight: Professor Seo-Young Chu” by Aliyah Ali.  The Knight News. December 5, 2023. 

SCIENCE FICTION

  • “How The Memory Police Makes You See.” By Jia Tolentino.  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.

LIVING IN QUEENS DURING A PANDEMIC

SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND RAPE CULTURE

“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”)

SERVICE to the Academic Profession, New York/Queens Community, Survivors of Sexual Violence, and Beyond

  • Service at Queens College, CUNY
  • Member of Honors Committee, 2015- .
  • Social Media person for the Queens College chapter of CUNY’s union, PSC-CUNY, 2022-
  • English Department Representative, Annual Undergraduate Open House, fall and spring 2019
  • Member of Curriculum Committee, 2014- 2015? (Double check).
  • Member of Assessment Committee, 2013- 2014?.
  • 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.
  • Service at Harvard University 
  • 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.
  • Other Professional Service
  • Mentor, #MeTooAcademia. 2017-
  • Volunteer, Elis For Rachael: Yale Mental Health Policy Reform. 2022-2023
  • 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.

SELECTED 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.
  • 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.

VIDEO LINKS (under construction)

“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 and Conference Talks/Lectures (UNDER CONSTRUCTION)

COURSES and Course DESCRIPTIONS (under construction)

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. 

Bio

(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. 


PRESS/MEDIA APPEARANCES (under construction)

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 .

TTBOOK

*note to self: other links here*

LIVING IN QUEENS DURING A PANDEMIC

Broadway World

JSTOR Daily

Queens Daily Eagle

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).

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/11/09/essay-about-being-raped-professor-sparks-call-public-acknowledgment-stanford-and

“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.).

https://stanforddaily.com/2017/11/13/english-faculty-told-to-redirect-press-questions-on-sexual-assault-allegations-to-university-communications

“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).

https://www.chronicle.com/article/sexual-harassment-and-assault-in-higher-ed-whats-happened-since-weinstein/

“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.).

https://stanforddaily.com/2017/11/14/editorial-board-lets-hold-faculty-to-a-higher-standard-on-sexual-assault/

“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).

https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/11/30/stanford-sexual-misconduct-revelation-exposes-storied-professors-secret/

“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).

https://www.chronicle.com/article/what-happens-when-sex-harassment-disrupts-victims-academic-careers/

“Former Grad Students: Our Professors Raped Us.” By Vanessa Rancaño (Dec 7, 2017).

https://www.kqed.org/news/11633019/years-later-women-find-their-voice-to-speak-out-against-sexual-misconduct-by-professors

“‘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.).

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/

“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).

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/academias-metoo-moment-women-accuse-professors-of-sexual-misconduct/2018/05/10/474102de-2631-11e8-874b-d517e912f125_story.html

“‘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).

https://stanfordpolitics.org/2019/06/14/stanford-one-year-after-metoo-how-stanfords-response-failed-victims-of-sexual-assault/

“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”)

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)