LISA YUN
Associate Professor, English Department
(Ph.D., University of Texas, B.A. Yale University)
tel.: (607) 777-6405
fax.: (607) 777-2408
e-mail: lisayun@binghamton.edu
Co-founder of Asian and Asian American Studies at Binghamton University
Former Associate Director and Acting Director of Asian and Asian American Studies
Founder of the Community Internship Program
Areas of Interest
Asian Diasporas of the Americas, Asian American Literature and Culture, Freedom and Slavery, Black and Asian Comparative Studies, Colonial/Postcolonial literature, Creative Writing
Current Projects
The Black Pacific and Asian Atlantic
Coolie and Slave: Intersections of Histories and Literatures
Publications
The Coolie Speaks: Chinese and Africans of Cuba (Temple University Press, 2008)
http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/1888_reg.html
CHOICE Outstanding Academic Book 2008
“... Exceptional study... Superbly contextualizes the heterogeneous world of contract labor involving Africans, Indians, and Chinese around the world... An enormously significant contribution to the field.”—CHOICE
“…The Coolie Speaks is a fascinating and thought provoking interdisciplinary work, which relates several areas of Asian, African, Caribbean, Latin American, and American Studies. Through her investigation, we see the benefits of bridging the study of both regions and disciplines.”-- The Afro-Hispanic Review
“…The study offers a thorough interpretation of the intersection of Asian, African, Latin American, Caribbean, and North American racial and economic philosophies within the context of slavery in nineteenth-century Cuba. … [B]eneficial to both students and scholars interested in questions of freedom, diaspora, transnationalism, and race. The study’s global nature and the multidisciplinary theoretical and methodological approach will undoubtedly redefine the way future scholars conduct research in the field.” -- HISTORY: Review of New Books
“The Coolie Speaks is of interest not only for Chinese diaspora studies but also for Latin American, Caribbean, and Pan-African studies and literary criticism.” —The Colonial Latin American Historical Review
“[Her] arguments are solid and profound.”—E-MISFÉRICA“
Articles
“Archives of Biography and History in the God of Luck” forthcoming The Journal of Chinese Overseas (2009)
“Linking African and Asian in Passing and Passage: Patricia Powell’s The Pagoda and Margaret Cezair Thompson’s The True History of Paradise” and “Havana Afro-Cubano Movement and the Harlem Renaissance” in Transnational Blackness: Navigating the Global Color Line eds. Manning Marable and Vanessa Agard-Jones (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008)
“Signifying Asian and Afro-cultural Poetics” in The Afro-Hispanic Review 27, no. 1 (Fall 2008): 183-218.
“Chinese Freedom Fighters in Cuba: From Bondage to Liberation 1847-1898” and “El Chino” in
AFRO/ASIA: Revolutionary Political and Cultural Connections Between African Americans and Asian Americans eds. Bill Mullen and Fred Ho (Duke University Press 2008)
“An Afro-Chinese Caribbean: Cultural Cartographies of Contrariness in the Work of Antonio Chuffat Latour, Margaret Cezair-Thompson, and Patricia Powell” in Caribbean Quarterly 50, no.2 (Summer 2004): 26-43.
“Spoken Word, Hip Hop, and Poetic Consciousness in the 21st Century”
Wasafiri: Journal of Contemporary African, Asian, Black British, and Caribbean Literature 38 (Spring 2003): 38-43.
“Domestic Terrorism: The Ideology of Division and the Power of Naming”Amerasia Journal 28, no. 3 (Spring 2003): 25-31.
“Under the Hatches: American Coolie Ships and Nineteenth Century Narratives of the Pacific Passage”
Amerasia Journal 28, no.2 (Fall 2002): 38-61.
“Linking African and Asian in Passing and Passage: The Pagoda and The True History of Paradise” SOULS: Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society 3, no. 3 (Winter 2001): 50-64.
“Chinese Coolies and African Slaves in Nineteenth Century Cuba” The Journal of Asian American Studies 4, no.2 (June 2001): 99-122.
"The Harlem Renaissance and The Havana Afrocubano Movement: The Role of the Intellectual in the Formation of National Identity” SOULS: Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society 1, no. 2 (Spring 1999): 18-30.
"Evanescence: Toshiko Akiyoshi and the Art of Jazz" in The Asian Pacific American Journal (Summer 1997): 105-110.
"The Politics of Language in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass"
MELUS: Journal for the Study of Multi‑Ethnic Literature in the U.S. 17, no.2 (1992): 51-59.
Articles in Non-refereed Publications
“Africans and Asians Breaking Boundaries,” Black Issues Book Review, May/June 2000
“The Pacific Century: Transforming of Our World View,” Inside Magazine: The Millennium Project Series, February 10, 2000
Creative Writing Publications: Poetry (15 published poems)
Anthologized
“Saturday in Chinatown,” in Roots and Flowers, Henry Holt, 2001
"Sewing by the Piece," "Saturday in Chinatown," in The NuyorAsian Anthology, Temple University Press, 1999
"Choice in Colored Rain,” in Identity Lessons, Viking Penguin, 1998
Literary Journals
“Julio’s Story,” Girl Back,” The Paterson Literary Review, Summer 2004
“El Chino,” Gathering of the Tribes Magazine, Issue 10 2003
“38 Mulberry Street,” Pennsylvania English
“razberrie,” Illya’s Honey, Winter 2000
"Sewing by the Piece," The Paterson Literary Review, Summer 1999
"Slouching Towards Bethlehem," LIPS, Fall 1998
"Death by Rose," "My Love of Watermelon and a Word Man," Illya's Honey, Summer 1998
“Fall of the Bride," "Choice in Colored Rain," "When Trains Rumble," The Paterson Literary Review, Summer 1997
"Saturday in Chinatown," "The Importance of Photographs," The Hawaii Pacific Review, Spring 1995
"An Affair of Roses," The Georgetown Review, Spring 1994
"My Sixth Winter Under a Blind Moon," The Seattle Review, Fall 1993
Grants and Awards
The SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Faculty Service 2007
Freeman Foundation Grant “Asian Studies: An Integrative Initiative” 2002 (Co-Principal Investigator: $1.75 million. Awarded to establish Asian and Asian American Studies Program, Four Year Plan)
NYFA/ New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry 1999
The Aspen Institute/ Writers Foundation Scholarship 1996
The Robert Wren Literature Prize 1990
Selected Presentations 2005-2008
University of Texas at Austin
“Nineteenth Century Afro-Asian Intersections in the Americas” (upcoming) April 2009
Cornell University
"Arguments of The Paper Chase: The Commodification of Freedom" October 2007
Ohio State University
"Building Asian American Studies, East of California" November 2006
American Studies Association, Oakland
"The Lessons Before Solidarity" October 2006
Pitzer College/ The Claremont Colleges
"The Immigrant Story? Early Writings of Asian Migrations to the Americas" April 2005
Association of Asian American Studies, Los Angeles
"Afro-Asian-Latino Questions and A Cuban Author: Afro-Chinese in Diaspora, Slavery, and Liberation" April 2005
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
"The Trap of Freedom and the Legacy of Slavery" March 2005
SUNY Binghamton, Fernand Braudel Center
"Testimonies of Labor and Systems of Bondage" March 2005
