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Jih-Fei Cheng,

Associate Professor of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Chair, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
FGSS
[email protected]

Pronouns: he/they

Office: Vita Nova 116 (enter through Vita Nova 115 foyer)

Personal Website

Biography

Jih-Fei Cheng previously worked in HIV/AIDS social services, managed a university cultural center, has been involved in arts and media production and curation, and has participated as a board or steering committee member for various queer of color grassroots and community-based organizations in Los Angeles and New York City. His organizing work has addressed the issues of queer and transgender health, immigration, gentrification and youth homelessness, police harassment and brutality, and prison abolition. He served on the Board of Directors at the HIV League (https://www.hivleague.org/). From 2010-2013, Jih-Fei served as the managing editor for American Quarterly, the official publication for the American Studies Association. He has taught courses at the University of California, Los Angeles and Hunter College.

Academic History

  • Ph.D. in American Studies and Ethnicity, with emphasis in Visual Studies, University of Southern California
  • M.A. in Asian American Studies, University of California, Los Angeles
  • B.A. in Communication with minors in Chinese Studies and General/World Literatures, University of California, San Diego

Academic Focus

Jih-Fei Cheng’s research examines the intersections between science, media, surveillance, and social movements. His first book project, tentatively titled "Materialist Virology," historicizes the field of virology within the contexts of Euro-American empire and racial capitalism. A co-edited volume with Alexandra Juhasz and Nishant Shahani, AIDS and the Distribution of Crises, was published in spring 2020 (Duke UP). He is also at work on a second project that engages how the colonial histories of virology and genetics have structured global industries, white supremacy across the Atlantic and the Americas, and Han Chinese ethnosupremacy across Asia Pacific.

Selected Research and Publications

Journal Articles

  • Cheng, Jih-Fei (2024) "Financial Contagion: Financial Epidemiology and Moral Reserve in a Risk Economy." History and Technology: An International Journal (forthcoming).
  • Cheng, Jih-Fei, et al. (2021) "Praxes of Care: The Politics of 'Intravention' in the Age of Covid-19." Social Science Research Council: Items, February 18.
  • Cheng, Jih-Fei. "Cold Blood: HIV/AIDS and the Global Blood Biotechnology Industry." Radical History Review, 2021, No. 140 (2021): 143-150.
  • Cheng, Jih-Fei (2019) “AIDS, Black Feminisms, and the Institutionalization of Queer Politics.” GLQ: A Journal of Gay and Lesbian Studies, Vol 25, No 1: 169-177.
  • Cheng, Jih-Fei (2016) "AIDS and Its Afterlives in Popular Media." Women's Studies Quarterly, Vol 44, No 1 & 2: 73-92.
  • Cheng, Jih-Fei (2015) "El tabaco se ha mulato: Globalizing Race, Viruses, and Scientific Observation in the Late Nineteenth Century." Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience, Vol 1, No 1: http://catalystjournal.org/ojs/index.php/catalyst/article/view/cheng
  • Cheng, Jih-Fei (2006) "HIV, Immigrant Rights, and Same-Sex Marriage." Amerasia Journal, Vol 30, No 1: 99-108.
  • Yoshikawa, H., Wilson, P. A., Chae, D., Cheng, J. (2004) "Do Family and Friendship Networks Protect Against the Influence of Discrimination on Mental Health and HIV Risk among Asian and Pacific Islander Gay Men?" AIDS Education and Prevention: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol 16, No 1: 84-100.

Volumes

  • "Reservoir." Special issue of History and Technology: An International Journal (forthcoming), eds. Jih-Fei Cheng, Rafico Ruiz, and Bharat Venkat.
  • AIDS and the Distribution of Crises (2020) eds. Jih-Fei Cheng, Nishant Shahani, and Alexandra Juhasz. Durham: Duke University Press. https://www.dukeupress.edu/aids-and-the-distribution-of-crises

Volume Contributions

  • Cheng, Jih-Fei (2021) "The Hybridity of Race: Genetics, Geopolitics, and the Queer Genealogy of the Chinese Jew." Q&A: Queer Voices from Asian North America,eds. Martin Manalansan, Alice Y. Hom, and Kale Bantigue Fajardo. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 40-56.
  • Cheng, Jih-Fei (2021) “Keeping it on the Download: The Transatlantic and Transpacific Viral Afterlives of Paris is Burning.” Queer Nightlife, eds. Kemi Adeyemi, Ramón H. Rivera-Servera, and Kareem Khubchandani. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. https://www.press.umich.edu/11700450/queer_nightlife
  • Cheng, Jih-Fei (2020) “Video Activism, AIDS, and New Queer Cinema.” Remaking Radicalism: A Grassroots Documentary Reader of the United States, 1973–2001, eds. Dan Berger and Emily K. Hobson. Athens: University of Georgia Press. https://ugapress.org/book/9780820357256/remaking-radicalism/
  • Cheng, Jih-Fei (2020) “Choreographies of Flesh: The Geopolitics of Visceral Violence in Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale (2011).” Keywords in Queer Sinophone Studies, eds. Howard Chiang and Alvin K. Wong. London: Routledge: 38-61. https://www.routledge.com/Keywords-in-Queer-Sinophone-Studies/Chiang-Wong/p/book/9780367226039

Roundtable Discussions

Art Exhibitions & Reviews

  • Chen, Mel Y. and Jih-Fei Cheng (2020) “A (Post-)Apocalyptic Call to Knowledge and Action.” Candice Lin, A Hard White Body, eds. Lotte Arndt and Yesomi Umolu. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Cheng, Jih-Fei and Candice Lin (2018) “Correspondence Between Candice Lin and Jih-Fei Cheng.” On Violence, eds. Sharon Kivland and Rebecca Jagoe. Berlin: MA BIBLIOTHÈQUE.
  • Cheng, Jih-Fei (2017) “'El tabaco se ha mulato’: Colonial Race and Virus Discovery in the Late Nineteenth-Century.” Candice Lin: A Hard White Body/Un corp blanc exquis (English and French translations), eds. Lotte Arndt and Lucas Morin. Bétonsalon: Center for Art and Research, December 23.

Book Reviews

  • Cheng, Jih-Fei (2023) Review of Love Your Asian Body: AIDS Activism in Los Angeles by Eric C. Wat. H-NET, H-Sci-Med-Tech, H-Net Reviews.
  • Cheng, Jih-Fei (2019) Review of Patient Zero and the Making of the AIDS Epidemic by Richard A. McKay. The Journal of the History of Sexuality, Vol 28, No 2: 311-313.
  • Cheng, Jih-Fei (2015) Review of Love and Money: Queers, Class, and Cultural Production, by Lisa Henderson Class. Feminist Media Studies, Vol 15, No 3: 541-543.
  • Cheng, Jih-Fei (2007) Review of Queer Migrations: Sexuality, U.S. Citizenship, and Border Crossings, eds. Eithne Luibhéid and Lionel Cantú Jr. Amerasia Journal, Vol 33, No 3: 154-156.
  • Cheng, Jih-Fei (2005) Review of Take Out: Queer Writing from Asian Pacific America, eds. Quang Bao and Hanya Yanagihara. Amerasia Journal, Vol 30, No 3: 118118-120.

Digital Commons

Awards and Honors

  • Lavender Graduation Award for providing safe and inclusive spaces for LGBTQIA students, Queer Resource Center, The Claremont Colleges, 2023
  • Professional Development Networks Grant at The Claremont Colleges, 2019-2020
  • Diversity Teaching Award Nominee, The Claremont Colleges, 2018
  • EnviroLab Asia Research and Conference Award, The Claremont Colleges, 2017-2018
  • Lavender Graduation Award for providing safe and inclusive spaces for LGBTQIA students, Queer Resource Center, The Claremont Colleges, 2016
  • Professional Development Networks Grant at The Claremont Colleges, 2016-2017
  • Research Fellow, Summer Institute for the Center for Historic American Visual Culture at the American Antiquarian Society, 2014
  • Visual Studies Summer Research Award, USC Visual Studies Graduate Institute, 2014
  • New Directions Fellow, USC Center for Feminist Research, 2011-2012
  • Tritia Toyota Fellowship, 2001-2002