Ruth Hsu

Candidate statement

Ruth Y. Hsu is associate professor of English at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. Recent publications include chapters in critical anthologies on Karen Tei Yamashita’s Tropic of Orange and Brazil Maru. She has also published work on Derek Kirk Kim’s graphic narratives and Orange is the New Black and Sense8. Since her tenure-track appointment as Asian American specialist at the University of Hawaii, her teaching and scholarship have entered on Asian American and Asian diaspora literary and cultural studies as well as contemporary American literature. Hsu is committed to furthering the goals of the AAAS, including maintaining its interdisciplinarity, its diversity of membership, and in fostering alliances with non-Asian American organizations that have demonstrated enduring commitments to principles that are similar to those of the AAAS. She will help promote inclusivity, mutual respect, understanding and stronger alliances among Asian Pacific American communities and, equally important, between academics in Asian American studies and the larger communities of APA artists, writers, filmmakers, and APA activists. She would like to see the AAAS develop a more vocal and influential presence in north American academia, civic society, and cultural circles.