Lena Chen’s essay won the Ray Sprigle Memorial Award as the best entry in the Division 2 outlet category and the excellence award for writing on history and culture at the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania Golden Quill awards. Read the essay. buff.ly/474aPrL

Excited to share our CFP for a new special section of Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience, “Racial Matters of Asian/America” co-edited with Natalia Duong ✨. Please share widely and consider submitting, esp those w/ new work at intersections of AsAm studies and Feminist STS! catalystjournal.org/index.php/cata…

Looking for a midwife in Los Angeles who does home birth and has successfully billed insurance! Had my first at The Midwife Center and LOVED it. Hoping now to have my second at home (in my childhood home where I grew up). Feel free to repost ❤️

[insert lit review]

A huge thanks to 15FilmFest for the recognition and offering a platform to the story of the Yee family and Pittsburgh’s Chinatown!

My documentary on Yuen Yee, the last honorary mayor of Pittsburgh’s Chinatown, is screening across the Midwest this fall ❤️ Catch the film in-person in Ohio and Minneapolis or online during Vancouver Asian Film Festival (VAFF) 🎥 We hope to complete a Chinese translation by the end of the year!

Lena Chen, AARC graduate student affiliate, has won three awards for her film, "The Last Mayor of Chinatown," which tells the story of the rise, decline, & rediscovery of Pittsburgh’s Chinatown. Lena Chen lenachen.com/the-last-mayor…

Presenting in-progress research next week for this virtual series at University of Toronto! I’ll discuss representations of Asian sex workers, the artistic activism of Red Canary Song, and the founding of JADED Pittsburgh after the 2021 Atlanta shootings eventbrite.ca/e/whorestory-e…

I have a co-authored chapter with @kass_sparks_on sex worker gift economies and mutual aid in this edited volume on sex work ✨ Get a free copy when it comes out next month with NYU Press. Edited by barb brents Bernadette Barton & Angela Jones.

Outfit check from day 2 of American Studies Association in Baltimore. My Lyft driver gave me recs for crab cakes and strip clubs 🦀

Speaking on this roundtable at American Studies Association #ASA2024 on artistic programming in the academy aka how to support artists I love with institutional funds while avoiding tokenization (and often failing)

Psyched to virtually present my documentary “The Last Mayor of Chinatown” today at my alma mater for CMU English Bridges & Borders conference on the theme of the archive. My subject Shirley Yee is retiring from CMU this year so it feels very full circle! eventbrite.com/e/bridges-and-…

Presented on Asian American BDSM and artist archives for the Association for Asian American Studies conference in Boston!