Shana Ye

Biography

Dr. Shana Ye is assistant professor of Women and Gender Studies at University of Toronto Scarborough and in the Women and Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto. Her research lies at the intersection of transnational feminism, queer social reproduction, queer cinema, post/socialist studies and theories of affect and trauma.

Weaving together ethnography, history, memoir, fiction and cultural critique, Shana’s manuscript Red Father, Pink Son: A Queer Journal to Chimerica (under contract) traces ways in which the economy of queer is predicated on the socioeconomic interdependence of China and the United States, or “Chimerica,” since the late Cold War. Centering on “impossible” subjects such as sodomites in the Cultural Revolution, rural queer migrants, gay men in HIV/AIDS movements, and LGBT activists in the institutionalization of queer Chinese studies and transnational grassroots queer/feminist activism, Shana’s project brings to the forefront questions of representation, queer mode of knowing, and the sexualized, gendered, and racialized power relations in transnational queer praxis.

Shana sees the goal of feminist education and research as to advance social justice. She is committed not only to increasing LGBTQ visibility in the classroom and professional venues, but also to “queering” the academic institution by challenging its systemic sexism, heteronormativity, classism, ableism and meritocracy through experiential pedagogy and creative methods. Shana holds a PhD in Feminist Studies and in Developmental Studies and Social Change from the University of Minnesota (2017). She has served on the governing boards of Society for Queer Asian Studies (SQAS) affiliated with Association for Asian Studies (AAS) and North American Asian Feminist Collaborative (NAAF) caucus at National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA).

Recent Publications

2022. “Word of Honor and Brand Homonationalism with ‘Chinese Characteristics’: the Dangai Industry, Queer masculinity and the ‘Opacity’ of the State.” Feminist Media Studies. DOI: 10.1080/14680777.2022.2037007.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14680777.2022.2037007?journalCode=rfms20

2021. “The Drama of Chinese Feminism: Post-socialist Trauma and   Decolonization of Affect.” Feminist Studies, 47. Nov 3, 783-812. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/848001/pdf

2021. “‘Paris’ and ‘Scar’: Queer Social Reproduction, Homonormative Division of Labour and HIV/AIDS Economy in Postsocialist China.” Gender, Place & Culture: A   Journal of Feminist Geography. Vol 28, Issue 12: 1778-1798. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0966369X.2021.1873742

2021. “Queering Postsocialist Coloniality: Decolonizing Queer Fluidity through Postsocialist Condition” in Postcolonial and Postsocialist Dialogues: Intersections, Opacities, Challenges in Feminist Theorizing and Practice. Edited by Redi Koobak, Madina Tlostanova and Suruchi Thapar-Björkert. London, UK: Routledge.

2018. “Reparative Return to ‘Queer Socialism’: Agency, Desires and the Socialist    Queer Space.” in Power and Pleasure: Writing the History of Sexuality in China. Edited by Howard Chiang. Seattle: University of Washington Press: 142-162.

2016.“Reconstructing the Transgendered Self as a Feminist Subject: Trans/Feminist   Praxis in Urban China.” TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, Vol 3. Numbers 1-2. https://read-dukeupress-edu.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/tsq/article/3/1-2/259/91783/Reconstructing-the-Transgendered-Self-as-a