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Email: christine.yao@ucl.ac.uk Co-Director, qUCL |  |
Bio
Xine Yao hails from Toronto, Canada (B.A. Trinity College at the University of Toronto, M.A. Dalhousie University, M.A. Cornell University, Ph.D. Cornell University). She is co-director of qUCL, the queer studies network.
Xine is a BBC Radio 3/AHRC New Generation Thinker. She holds or has held leadership positions in several national and international academic organizations and editorial boards.For 2021-2024 she represents the LLC 19th-Century American Forum to the Delegate Assembly of the Modern Language Association. She was elected to serve on the Executive Committee of the LLC 19th-Century American Forum for the Modern Language Association 2024-2029. She previously served on the Executive Committee of C19: The Society of Nineteenth-Century Americanists. She is the co-host of PhDivas, a podcast about academia, culture, and social justice across the STEM/humanities divide. Xine is the founding chair of the podcast initiative for C19: The Society of Nineteenth-Century Americanists.
Research Interests
Xine’s primary research focuses on early and nineteenth-century American literature through affect theory, critical race and ethnic studies, and feminist, trans, and queer of colour critique. Her interests include histories of science and law, science fiction, comics/graphic novels, and digital humanities; she is especially interested in solidarity and comparative racialization between Black, Asian, and Indigenous peoples. (Please note that if you are seeking PhD supervision Xine asks that there be substantive overlap between her research expertise and your project otherwise she cannot in good conscience work with you.)
Monograph
Their first book is Disaffected: The Cultural Politics of Unfeeling in Nineteenth Century America (Duke University Press 2021) in the influential Perverse Modernities series edited by J Halberstam and Lisa Lowe.
- Robert K Martin Book Prize, Canadian Association of American Studies
- Duke University Press's Scholars of Color First Book Award
- Arthur Miller First Book Prize Honourable Mention, British Association of American Studies
- University English Book Prize Shortlist
Read the introduction for free here.
Selected Awards
- 2024 Member, American Antiquarian Society
- 2021 Highly Commended Award, Provost's Award for Embedding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, UCL
- 2019-2020 UCL-University of Toronto Global Engagement Office Research Collaboration Grant "Comparative Settler Colonialisms in Global Contexts" with Professor Melissa Gniadek (University of Toronto)
- 2019 UCL Student Choice Teaching Award for Diverse and Inclusive Education
- 2019 UCL Grand Challenges Grant, Theme: Embedded Inequalities. Collaborative Project: “Trans Studies, Trans Lives: Past, Present, and Future” symposium bringing together interdisciplinary trans studies research and the lived experiences along with creative work from the UCL trans community. Co-organizers: Dr. Ella Metcalfe (Maths and Physical Sciences), Dr. Ezra Horbury (English)
- 2019-2020 Targeted Research Panel Grant, British Association of American Studies, “Definitions Toward Solidarity: BAME Americanists in the UK and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies,” 2 year collaboration co-organized with Dr. Christine Okoth (Warwick)
- 2018 Yasuo Sakakibara Essay Prize from the American Studies Association for best paper by an international scholar at the annual conference. "(Un)Sympathetic Babo: Blackness, Science, and the Sympathetic Politics of Recognition."
Articles
#staywoke: Digital Engagement and Literacies in Anti-Racist Pedagogy.” American Quarterly. Special issue: Toward a Critically Engaged Digital Practice. 70.3 (2018). 439-454. Finalist for the American Studies Association's 2019 Constance M. Rourke Prize for best article in American Quarterly.
Chapters in Edited Collections
“Gender Variance Before Trans: A Literary History.” The Cambridge History of Queer American Literature. Ed. Benjamin A Kahan. Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2023.
- Finalist for the 2022 LGBTQ Anthology Award from Lambda Literary
Reviews and Introductions
“From Necessity to Nuance: How Edith Maude Eaton Became Sui Sin Far, a Case Study.” Review of Becoming Sui Sin Far: Early Fiction, Journalism, and Travel Writing by Edith Maude Eaton, edited by Mary Chapman, in Common-place: The Journal of Early American Life 18.2 (2018): ~1500 words.
“Sodomy and Settler Colonialism: Early American Original Sins.” Introduction to Samuel Danforth’s The Cry of Sodom Enquired Into; Upon Occasion of the Arraignment and Commendation of Benjamin Goad, for His Prodigious Villany (1674), Common-place: The Journal of Early American Life 17.3 (2017): ~500 words.