USC College Department of English


Karen Tongson

Assistant Professor of English and Gender Studies

Contact Information
E-mail: tongson@usc.edu
Phone: (213) 740-2817
Office: THH 402K

LINKS
Oh! Industry
Review for IJOC (International Journal of Communication)
Records y Recuerdos Events for VISIONS & VOICES
Gender Studies Faculty Profile
 

Biographical Sketch

Professor Karen Tongson joined the USC faculty in English and Gender Studies in fall 2005. Before coming to USC, Tongson held a University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellowship in Literature at UC San Diego, and a UC Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI) Residential Research Fellowship at UC Irvine. She received her Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Berkeley. Tongson's work on popular culture, queer studies, performance, music and literature has appeared in such journals as Social Text, GLQ, Nineteenth-Century Literature, Novel: A Forum on Fiction, and The International Journal of Communication, as well as in the anthologies Queering the Popular Pitch (Routledge), and The Blackwell Companion to LGBTQ Studies (eds. Haggerty and McGarry). She is currently writing a book, titled RELOCATIONS: Queer Suburban Imaginaries, which will be part of the New York University Press "Sexual Cultures" Series edited by Jose Esteban Munoz and Ann Pellegrini. Professor Tongson is also a co-founder and regular contributor to the "culture industry" webzine OH! INDUSTRY (http://www.ohindustry.com)

Education

  • B.A. English, University of California, Los Angeles, 1995
  • Ph.D. English, University of California, Berkeley, 2003

Postdoctoral Training

  • Residential Research Fellow, University of California Humanities Research Institute (UC Irvine), 01/01/2004-07/01/2004  
  • President's Postdoctoral Fellow in Literature (UCSD), University of California , 06/01/2003-05/30/2005  

Description of Research

Research Specialties
Queer & Gender Studies; Minority Discourse; Popular Culture (Pop Music, TV, Entertainment & Media Cultures); Suburban Studies; Performance; Los Angeles & the Southern California Region; Contemporary Literature; 19th-Century British Literature; Theory; Aesthetics

Affiliations with Research Centers, Labs, and Other Institutions

  • University of California Humanities Research Institute,http://flatiron.sdsc.edu/projects/uchri/main.php?page_id=2

Conferences and Other Presentations

Conference Presentations
  • "The Softer Side of Long Beach", American Studies Association Annual Convention, Talk/Oral Presentation, Refereed Paper, Albuquerque, NM, American Studies Association, Fall 2008   
  • "Thriller in Cebu and Other Intimate Reenactments", Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Talk/Oral Presentation, Refereed Paper, San Francisco, CA, Modern Language Association (MLA), Fall 2008   
  • "Listening to Long Beach: Spectrums of the Carpenters' Sound", American Comparative Literature Association Annual Conference (ACLA), Talk/Oral Presentation, Refereed Paper, Long Beach, CA, ACLA (American Comparative Literature Association), Spring 2008   
  • "Incidental Suburbanisms in Pop Music and Queer Theory", PSI 13, Performance Studies International Annual Conference , Talk/Oral Presentation, , New York, NY, New York University Tisch School of the Arts, Fall 2007   
  • "Theorizing Intimate Re-enactments", ASA: American Studies Association Annual Conference, Talk/Oral Presentation, Refereed , Philadelphia, PA, American Studies Association, Fall 2007   
  • "Inland Emperors", Disjunctions Interdisciplinary Conference, Keynote, , Riverside, CA, University of California, Riverside, Invited, Spring 2007   
  • "Love Among the Ruins: Butch Intimacies After Gentrification", Sager Symposium, Keynote, , Swarthmore College, Invited, Spring 2007   
  • "No Alternative", After CBGB, Now What?: Gender, Sexuality and the Future of Subculture, Plenary , , New York, NY, New York University, Invited, Spring 2007   
  • "Relocations: Queer of Color Suburban Imaginaries", Historicism, Homonormativity and Queer Political Formations Symposium, Keynote, , Santa Cruz, CA, University of California, Santa Cruz, Invited, Spring 2007   
  • "Suburban Soundscapes: Audio Archives of the Suburban Dykeaspora", Experience Music Project Pop Music Conference, Refereed , Seattle, WA, Experience Music Project, Spring 2007   
  • "Take Me Out Tonight: The Butchlalis de Panochtitlan Reclaim ‘Lesser Los Angeles’", ASA, American Studies Association Annual Conference, Talk/Oral Presentation, Refereed , Oakland, CA, American Studies Association, Fall 2006   
  • "Keyword: Space", What's Queer About Queer Studies Now?, Keynote Lecture, Paper, Rutgers University | New Brunswick, NJ, Invited, 11/2005  
Other Presentations
  • "American Idol's Adam Lambert: The Great Gay Hope?", Let it Rock: Contemporary Voices in Queer Music, CLAGS | Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies, CUNY Graduate School | New York, NY, 05/2009  
  • "Relocations and Queer Regionalisms", Distinguished Lecture Series on Gender, Sexuality & Critical Practice, Humanities Korea, Ewha Women's University | Seoul, Korea, 05/2009  
  • "Soundscapes in Southern California", Invited Lecture & Roundtable, Simpson Center for the Humanities, University of Washington | Seattle, WA, 04/2009  
  • "Critical Listening ", Media Studies in Southern California Symposium, Department of Cultural Studies, Claremont University | Claremont, CA, 03/2009  
  • "Sound Migrations: Queer Soundscapes and the Fil-Am Imaginary", Invited Lecture, Department of Gender & Sexuality Studies and the Program in Film Studies, Bryn Mawr College | Bryn Mawr, PA, 03/2009  
  • "Immigrant Soundscapes from Manila to Riverside", Lecture Series: New Perspectives in Ethnic Studies, Department of Ethnic Studies, University of California, Riverside | Riverside, CA, 05/2008  
  • "Suburbs", Popular Music Project and L.A.C.E. Listening Parties , Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions and the Popular Music Project at the Norman Lear Center, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) | Hollywood, CA, 03/2008  
  • "Revoluciones Per Minute: A Listening Party Featuring Punk, New Wave and Queer Noise from East L.A.", Visions & Voices, Popular Music Project at The Norman Lear Center, USC Provost's Arts and Humanities Initiative, Center for Feminist Research, USC-Los Angeles, CA, Fall 2007   
  • ""Contact, Creativity and Klub Fantasy: Butch Intimacies in Lesser Los Angeles"", Invted Lecture, Departments of English, Gender Studies, Asian American Studies, Ethnic Studies and American Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign | Champaign, IL, 03/2007  
  • "Beyond Queer Cosmopolitanism: The Suburbs, Race, and Sexual/Textual Politics", Women, Gender and Sexuality Seminar Series (Invited Scholar), Johns Hopkins University, The Johns Hopkins University-Baltimore, MD, Fall 2006   
  • "Curator", Critical Constellations: Race, Gender, Sexuality & Theory, Gender Studies Program, Center for Feminist Research, USC-Los Angeles, CA, Fall 2006   
  • "Hot Red and Blue: Queers and the Electoral Imaginary", Speaker Series: Consortium for Women and Research and Cultural Studies Program, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, Spring 2006   
  • "From Weissnichtwo to Kalihi: The Accent in Queer Provincial Imaginaries", UCLA Fall Speaker Series: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Studies Program, UCLA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Studies Program, Los Angeles, CA, Fall 2005   
  • "Keyword: Area", Keywords Series, UC Irvine Women and Gender Studies, University of California, Irvine Women and Gender Studies Department, Irvine, CA, Fall 2005   
  • "Queer Provincialisms: A Conversation with Lynne Chan", Beyond the Strai(gh)ts: Transnationalism and Queer Chinese Politics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, Fall 2005   

Publications

Book
  • Tongson, K. Relocations: Queer of Color Suburban Imaginaries. New York, NY: New York University Press.
Book Chapter
  • Tongson, K. (2007). "The Light That Never Goes Out: Butch Intimacies in Lesser Los Angeles" in The Blackwell Companion to LGBT Studies. Oxford: Blackwell.
  • Tongson, K. (2006). Tickle Me Emo: Lesbian Balladeering, Straight Boy Emo and the Politics of Affect in QUEERING THE POPULAR PITCH. (Vol. Chapter 4). Routledge.
  • Tongson, K. (2005). Metronormativity and Gay Globalization. pp. p. 40-53. Berlin, Germany: Quer durch die Geisteswissenschaften: Perspektiven der Queer Theory/Querverlag.
  • Tongson, K. (2004). Thomas Carlyle and The Grain of the Voice. pp. p. 245-262. The Idea of Music in Victorian Fiction/Ashgate.
Book Review
  • Tongson, K. (2008). Review of Jasbir Puar's Terrorist Assemblages. Women and Performance.
  • Tongson, K. (2007). Review of Elana Levine's Wallowing in Sex: The New Sexual Culture of 1970s American Television. International Journal of Communication. pp. 79-80. International Journal of Communication (IJOC)
Essay
  • Tongson, K. (2004). White Men are Hysterical. pp. Number 4. GLQ.
Journal Article
  • Tongson, K. (2006). Lesbian Aesthetics, Aestheticizing Lesbianism. Nineteenth-Century Literature/University of California Press. Vol. Fall
  • Tongson, K. (2005). JJ Chinois' Oriental Express, Or How a Suburban Heartthrob Seduced Red America. Social Text/Duke University Press. Vol. Fall/Winter
  • Tongson, K. (2005). Sexuality in the City. Novel: A Forum on Fiction/Brown University Press. Vol. NA
  • Tongson, K. (2001). The Transnational Aesthetics of Thomas Moore's Irish Melodies. Repercussions: Critical and Alternative Viewpoints on Music and Scholarship/University of California Press. Vol. NA
  • Tongson, K. (1996). The Nether World of Neither World: Hybridization in the Literature of Wendy Rose. American Indian Culture and Research Journal/University of California Press. Vol. NA

Multimedia Scholarship and Creative Works

  • Pop Culture Webzine, OH! INDUSTRY (http://www.ohindustry.com) is a collaboration with Christine Bacareza Balance (UC Irvine) and Alexandra Vazquez (Princeton University). This web magazine/blog offers monthly volumes featuring new reviews and cultural commentary on pop music, tv, film, new media, performance, fads, fashion and politics., 11/01/2007-  
  • Producer, Visions & Voices, Producing and planning the premiere of "The Barber of East L.A." (a play by the Butchlalis de Panochtitlan), and a retrospective exhibit of Hector Silva's work at ONE International Gay and Lesbian Archive., Spring 2008   
  • Essay , An essay, titled "Miss Independent, or Between Women Reconsidered" for IN MEDIA RES, a Media Commons Project. Organized as a virtual roundtable with the theme "Queer Citizenship", 03/12/2009  

Service to the Profession

Conferences Organized
  • Organizer, A Freestyle Symposium, University of Southern California, A one-day symposium on the pop music genre "Freestyle" (Expose, Jocelyn Enriquez, Lisa Lisa & The Cult Jam, etc.) featuring scholars Alexandra Vazquez (Yale), Christine Bacareza Balance (Vassar), Joon Oluchi Lee (RISD) and L.A. Times Pop Music critic, Ann Powers., Fall 2006   
Professional Memberships
  • Performance Studies International, 11/08/2007-  
  • American Studies Association, 2003-  
  • American Comparative Literature Association, 2001-  
  • Modern Language Association, 1996-  
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