UC Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow, UC Riverside

Emily Hue is a UC Chancellor’s postdoctoral scholar based in the Departments of Comparative Literature and Foreign Languages and Ethnic Studies. She completed her Ph.D. at New York University this past fall in the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis in American Studies. Her current book manuscript, “Economies of Vulnerability: Humanitarian Imperialism and Performance in the Burmese Diaspora,” combines ethnographic methods with visual arts and performance analysis to examine how mainly diasporic artists from Burma and its borderlands respond to the pressure from governmental organizations and NGOs to report on their vulnerability to Burmese state military surveillance,censorship and torture. This research follows the previously censored work of Burmese communities and allies to New York City where they’ve collaborated with other communities of color and immigrants at protests in front of U.S. embassies, performance art in meditation centers, and international exhibitions. At these sites, she has asked how, why, and for whom diasporic artists deliberately engage self-injury and bodily objectification to foster political power at the intersection of the international arts market and the humanitarian industry. These modes include how artists negotiate the terms of self-injury to navigate not only past experiences of trauma but current experiences of asylum—through their critiques of the U.S. state, their active search for financial support through artist residencies and grants, and their efforts to create diasporic community spaces.She has previously taught courses in (Asian)American Studies, and Gender and Sexuality departments at New York University, Hunter College and the University of Connecticut, Storrs. Emily has previously worked in the academic publishing industry and has participated as an editor, interviewer and organizer in a community podcast series entitled American Alien. This podcast series connected the lives and practices of Burmese diasporic artists, academics and activists and other cultural producers of color and was hosted by the Flux Factory, a local artists’ collective space based in Queens, NY.