Joey Hong

Joey Hong (They/them) is currently a second-year Ph.D. student in English at Washington University in St. Louis, and they are also pursuing a graduate certificate in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. They have a keen interest in the genre known as transgothic, which integrates trans* studies and Gothic literature. Their interest lies in the ways that this genre allows us to detect the fluidity of the human being beyond cisgender-centered heteronormativity and humanity. They investigate how entities with nonnormative identities, such as monsters or cyborgs, represent themselves in writings and how they negotiate their selfhood with their surroundings. Their first article related to this subject appeared in Shirley Jackson Studies (https://shirleyjacksonstudies.org/?p=287). Joey has recently taken an interest in examining the transfemininity through the lens of Asian and Asian American studies. They are exploring trans speculative fictions written (Asian) American writers, which focus on the lives and self-making of trans* subjects. Their current project about Asian and Asian American transfemininity will help us gain a perspective of why Asia has been feminized by Western empires in world history, and how transfemininity in Global Asia can operate as a pioneering force to remap our understanding of gender and sexuality outside the context of Western patriarchal and imperialist understanding of sex and gender. Moreover, the Philosophy of Love is another cluster of Joey's interests. They examine what is so special about the affect known as "love." Joey navigates how people practice love and sexuality in contemporary society through topics such as non/monogamies, kink, and online dating. Joey has recently published a public-facing work about polyamory in Visible Magazine (https://visiblemagazine.com/the-reasons-why-true-love-need-not-remain-forever/).