Ruthann Lee, PhD

Associate Professor

Cultural Studies, English and Cultural Studies

Currently on leave
Other Titles: Cultural Studies
Office: CCS 381
Phone: 250.807.9181
Email: ruthann.lee@ubc.ca

Research Summary

Cultural Studies; Politics of Decolonization, Solidarity, and Resistance; Indigeneity, Diaspora, and Settler Colonialism; Indigenous Peoples and Asian/Korean Immigrant Relations in Canada; Feminist Art and Media Activism; Queer Masculinities and Performance

Courses & Teaching

Visual Culture and Social Activism; Gender, Race, and Popular Culture; Politics of Identity and Difference; Queer Masculinities

Biography

I have Korean ancestry and currently live on unceded Syilx Okanagan territory where I work as an Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. I teach about art and media activism and I have written essays about representations of racialized masculinities in North American popular culture. I have more recently published on Indigenous and diasporic relationships in the context of settler colonialism and late global capitalism. As a community organizer, I am keen to build feminist, queer, trans, anti-racist, and Indigenous solidarity in Cultural Studies and beyond.

Degrees

PhD, Sociology, York University; MA, Sociology and Equity Studies in Education, OISE-UT; BA (Hons), Equity Studies, University of Toronto

Selected Publications & Presentations

Selected Journal Articles

“Using Indigenous Feminist Land Ethics to Queer the Korean Missionary Position in Canada.” TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies 38 (Fall 2017): 103-113.

“Portraits of (Un)Settlement: Troubling the Production of Multicultural Masculinities in Dominique Hui’s Quiet North and Kent Monkman’s Shooting Geronimo.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 21:4 (2015): 459-499.

“‘My History is a Foreign Word’: (Re)imagining Black Diasporic Masculinities in David Chariandy’s Soucouyant.” TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies 33 (2015): 77-98.

“Anti-Capitalist Decolonization and the Production of Queer Masculinities in Noam Gonick’s Stryker.” Feral Feminisms 1:4 (2015): 74-88.

Selected Book Chapters

Co-author with Allison Hargreaves [textbook insert, 50% authorship]. “A Special Note on Teaching Indigenous Content.” Writing Today. Second Canadian Edition. Edited by Richard Johnson-Sheehan, Charles Paine, Cathi Shaw and Jordan Stouck. Toronto: Pearson, 2019. xxiv-xxv.

“Gendering Crime: Crime and Masculinity.” Criminalization, Representation and Regulation: Thinking Differently About Crime. Edited by Deborah Brock, Amanda Glasbeek, Carmela Murdocca. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014. 133-62.

“(Un)settling Multicultural Masculinities in Contemporary Canadian Art.” Canadian Men and Masculinities: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Edited by Wayne J. Martino and Christopher J. Greig. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press, 2012. 285-312.

“No More Good Boys: Ambivalence, Desire and the Re-Imagining of Asian American Masculinity in Better Luck Tomorrow.” Pimps, Wimps, Thugs and Gentlemen: Essays on Media Images of Masculinity. Ed. Elwood Watson. Jefferson: McFarland Publishers, 2009. 51-67.

“Queer Theory and Anti-Racism Education: Politics of Race and Sexuality in the Classroom and Beyond.” Embodying Asian/American Sexualities. Eds., Gina Masequesmay and Sean Metzger. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2009. 73-87.

“‘Coming Out’ as a Queer Korean Woman in Canada: A Personal Cultural Narrative.” Han Kut: Critical Art and Writing by Korean Canadian Women. Eds., KCWA Collective. Toronto: Inanna Publications, 2007. 41-57.

Co-author with the Wench Collective. “Wench Radio: Funky Feminist Fury.” Canadian Woman Studies: An Introductory Reader. Ed. Luciana Ricciutelli. Toronto: Inanna Publications, 2006. 575-583. [reprinted article]

Other Work

“Campus Diversity Report: Experiences of Indigenous and/or Racialized and/or LGBTQ+ Students at UBC Okanagan.” Co-author [25% authorship] with Susana Caxaj, Shirley Chau, and Ilya Parkins. March 2018, 20 pages.

Selected Grants & Awards

UBC Community Engagement Partnership Recognition Fund: The Okanagan Immigrant Collective Board Retreat, 2018

UBC Equity Enhancement Fund: Confluence: A Women’s Water Circle (co-I); Peer Driven Indigenous, 2017

UBCO Individual Research Grant: Bodies, Land, and Labour: Feminist Art and the Politics of Relationality, 2016

UBC Equity Enhancement Fund: Racialized, and/or Queer Youth Capacity Building (co-I), 2015

SSHRC Insight Development Grant: Multicultural Missions: Korean Diasporas, Evangelism, and Aboriginal-Settler Relations in Canada, 2015-2017

UBC Hampton Fund: Que(e)rying Campus Space: Exploring the Experiences of Indigenous, Queer, and/or Racialized Students at UBCO (co-I), 2015-2017

UBC SSHRC Institutional Grant, 2012

Awards & Distinctions

“I Am Accessible” Teaching Award, Disability Resource Centre, UBC Okanagan, 2017 and 2014