Overview
Susan Thananopavarn is a Lecturing Fellow in the Thompson Writing Program and a core faculty member of Duke's program in Asian American and Diaspora Studies (AADS). Her research interests include contemporary American literature, ethnic studies, and Asian American studies. Her book, LatinAsian Cartographies: History, Writing, and the National Imaginary (Rutgers UP, 2018), examines how Asian American and Latina/o literary texts can disrupt dominant understandings of U.S. history by "writing back in" histories of imperialism, nativistic racism, border crossings, and LatinAsian contact zones.
At Duke, Susan teaches Writing 101 courses in Asian American studies; “ethnofuturism,” or alternative speculative fiction by writers of color; and exploring human connection in the digital age. She also teaches a course in Asian American literature for Duke's program in Asian American and Diaspora Studies. Susan received her A.B. in Anthropology from Princeton, an M.A. in Anthropology from UC-Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature from UNC-Chapel Hill.
