Faculty Spotlight: Rachel Kuo Talks Feminisms, Social Movements & Making Zines

Dr. Rachel Kuo (she/her) joined the UW-Madison community in Fall 2024 as an Assistant Professor in Gender and Women Studies, and in our Asian American Studies program.

Previously she served as an Assistant Professor of Media and Cinema Studies at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; and a visiting scholar at Duke University’s  Asian American and Diasporic Studies program. She was a 2021-23 Fellow at the Center for Democracy and Technology and 2021-22 Siegel Endowment Research Fellow. She has a PhD and MA in Media, Culture, and Communication from New York University, and BA in Journalism from the University of Missouri.

Below, she shares with us her vision for research, teaching and building community here in Madison.

What is the current direction of your scholarship and community work?

RK: Broadly, my research focuses on studies of feminism, social movements, and technology and I’m trained in media and communication studies. One direction of my research is the project Transnational Information Networks and Asian Diasporic Politics, which approaches mis- and disinformation through the lens of how memory undergirds people’s political analysis and media engagement. I’m currently working alongside folks at the Alliance for Filipino Immigrant Rights and Empowerment (AFIRE) Chicago and Filipino Young Leaders Program (FYLPRO) on an iteration of this project, putting together community workshops that map historical and media landscapes and holding a cohort program for intergenerational oral histories. We’ve been trying to think a lot about cross-diasporic solidarity across and within Asian American communities, including better understanding different diasporic politics and media systems.

I often describe myself as a reluctant mis- and disinformation researcher (especially given the many contentions around these terms). I enter into these conversations from an interest in social movements and questions of how we build alignment across uneven differences as part of the work of solidarity. This project emerges from lessons in political organizing, particularly how to build transnational and intergenerational political analysis and map intra-community power dynamics, fault lines, and tensions in order to strengthen Asian American social movements. It also builds on my first monograph Movement Media: In Pursuit of Solidarity, which is about the relationship between media and the making of political formations and collective politics. So much of movement work is the behind-the-scenes work of building alignment and consensus through political education and dialogue…the slow work of moving through disagreement. Some of the more public-facing work I’ve been doing around this project has been serving as the Research Facilitator for the Asian American Disinformation Table, an interfaith, inter-caste, multi-ethnic, multi-language coalition that coordinates research and narrative strategies.

The other component of this project includes archival research on historical connections between technology and communication policy, international development, and expansions of U.S. militarism in Asia in the post-Cold War era. Some of the cultural production and organizing work I’ve also been doing in the last few years is trying to push back against the ways that technological reform becomes used to enable structures of state violence.

What excites you the most about Asian American feminisms today? 

In the first zine and manifesto of the Asian American Feminist Collective (AAFC), we talk about Asian American feminism as ever-evolving and as an orientation to how we theorize and practice politics that can be mobilized at particular moments in time and under particular social and material conditions: How do we communicate a shared politics that reflects the multiplicities of Asian American feminism and interrogates Asian American as a category for advancing political claims? How do we think about Asian American feminism through transnational and relational frameworks?

I think that ongoing commitment to growing analysis and practice is something that’s exciting to me. AAFC is also currently doing a community survey on how people are engaging and thinking about Asian American feminism in 2025 and beyond that I’m excited about. Also, one of my favorite projects in the last few years was working on two special issues on Asian American abolition feminisms with Diane Wong, where we brought together artists, activists and scholars to think through the intersection of abolition feminisms and Asian Americanist critique. 

What classes do you currently teach, and what is your dream class to teach? 

In Spring 2025, I’ll be teaching Asian American Activism (AAS 240) and Feminist Research and Writing (Gen&WS 240). In the past, I’ve also taught courses on the intersections of race and gender with digital media and technology and recently co-wrote a public syllabus on transnational information studies. Many of my courses bring together historical primary source materials with newer media forms, so we spend time reading zines and also looking at Instagram posts as a way to contextualize contemporary issues while also grounding readings in day-to-day discourse. I would love to teach a class on abolition feminisms or on feminist technology! 

Why is it important for undergraduate students to have access to Asian American Studies? 

I see the stakes of Asian American Studies past and present as necessarily engaging questions of power in relation, that is, to contextualize and apply understandings of differential and asymmetrical dimensions of power. Classes in Asian American Studies encourage students to learn different histories, perspectives, and experiences in ways that help them engage critically and thoughtfully with the world around them. We have also been in a moment where questions of power often get reduced down to individual representation and narrow bids for inclusion and visibility, and I think Asian American studies can help students think beyond just identity to consider broader structures and systems of power, but also use these frameworks as a way to interact and understand topics in popular culture and contemporary social issues. 

What excites you the most about joining our AAS community? 

I love learning new things and I’m really excited to join such a vibrant community where people have shared intellectual curiosities and affinities while also approaching research and teaching in different creative and interdisciplinary ways. I’ve really enjoyed meeting folks and having all kinds of conversations about different books, television shows, political and cultural moments. I’ve also really appreciated the different programs that AAS does. For example, I learned a lot from the conversations and lessons from Vietlead’s Taking Root documentary screening on Southeast Asian refugee resettlement that AASP co-hosted with Freedom Inc in October and looking forward to other events. 

What hobbies do you have and what is your favorite form of self care? 

I have aspirations for hobbies! I do enjoy swimming and biking. For self care, I like any activity that lets me feel like I’m indulging in time: an afternoon nap, a long walk, or cooking a more complicated recipe. I also like watching reality television (the range from Great British Bake Off, Survivor, The Circle, Physical 100, to Perfect Match and Love Island). 

 

Learn more about Dr.Kuo and the rest of our Asian American Studies faculty here.