College of St. Catherine

Graduate Student, Library and Information Science

Other Affiliations: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, English and Comparative Literature

Thesis Title: The Ambivalence of Sounding Asian American: Aural Meaning and Politics in Contemporary Asian American Culture

About

I am a lover of dogs, books, and libraries. I study, teach, and write about literature, particularly Asian American literature and other writing that challenges uncritical visions of America and the world we live in. I am currently a graduate student in the library science program at St. Catherine University.

“The Ambivalence of Sounding Asian American: Aural Meaning and Politics in Contemporary Asian American Culture,” under the co-directorship of  Jennifer Ho and John McGowan, offers a broad study of sounds in Asian American culture and critical discourse. Arguing that the racialization of Asians in America has relied as strongly on sounds as it has on the visual difference of Asian bodies, this project turns to the register of non- and extra-linguistic sounds to think about how Asian Americanist critique as an academic practice has crucially been about linking the physical noises of Asian American lives and voices to politically charged identities and projects. Nevertheless, these sounds embody a fundamental double refusal of not wanting to be identified solely as Asian or solely as American, thus suggesting an Asian American subject that is structured by ambivalence. My focus on an aural register in literature and culture allows for the tracing of a different genealogy of critical multiculturalisms than ones focused on visual cultures and identity politics. This aural orientation shifts critical attention to issues ranging from acoustic theories of subject-formation to transnational circuits and mixings of popular music to accent discrimination and hate speech, signaling new possibilities for Asian American identities and epistemologies. Sounds, like Asian American subjects themselves, are ambivalent and less consistently articulated to codified cultural and political meanings. As part of this project of listening to the sounds of Asian Americanist critique, I examine a tradition of Asian American literary anthologies from Aiiieeeee! to Screaming Monkeys; the performed poetry of San Francisco’s Poet Laureate Janice Mirikitani and Queens, New York’s Poet Laureate Ishle Yi Park; the anime music videos of singer-songwriter Vienna Teng on YouTube; and the standup comedy of Margaret Cho in dialogue with Mari Matsuda’s discussions of accent discrimination.

I've decided to upload some of the syllabi of courses I've taught. Feel free to browse and borrow from them! If you find them interesting or useful, please drop me a note at pylai@stkate.edu! I'd love to hear how your classes go.

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