Name: Rachel Kuo
Title: Assistant Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies and Asian American Studies
Hometown: Chicago, IL (or Chicago area)
Educational/professional background:
I have a Ph.D. and MA in Media, Culture, and Communication from New York University and a Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia, with minors in Art and Classical Humanities. Before graduate school, I used to do communications work.
What is your field of research, and how did you get into it?
My research focuses on race, digital studies, technology, and social movements–I think like many people who get into digital studies, it’s because I spend (or used to spend) a lot of time online. I started my research thinking a lot about digital organizing and also political issues that emerge from new technologies. My interests have shifted slightly in that I ground my questions in different explorations of solidarity, particularly how people build political analysis of race and power and also how they apply this analysis in practice. Digital technologies then become a site in which I think through these questions and the kinds of political contradictions that emerge.
What attracted you to UW-Madison?
Getting to be part of both Gender and Women’s Studies and Asian American Studies at UW-Madison is super exciting for me. I feel like I’ve found my intellectual home. I’ve also lived in Madison for a couple of years and am happy to be back. My fun fact is my first job was being a Wienermobile driver (or Hotdogger) back when Oscar Mayer was headquartered in Madison, and then I worked at the UW-Madison Multicultural Student Center for a couple years before going to graduate school. In that role, I learned a lot from the people around me, which sparked my interest in wanting to go back to school and spend more time learning and growing my own analysis about race and politics – so it’s nice to come back full circle in a way.
What was your first visit to campus like?
The most recent before my move was in February so it was cold and windy! But, one of my favorite trips to Madison was the Asian American Studies conference in 2019. The conference is always in April, and I remember hanging out by the lake one afternoon when it was super warm…and then the next day it snowed.
Favorite place on campus?
I’m still getting to know the campus again, but it’s hard not to say the Terrace? The lake on a sunny day is lovely. The Red Gym is also special to me. I also really like the University Archives in Steenbock too–I took my students there but then have also enjoyed poking through the collections myself and learning about the different histories of campus activism.
Do you feel your work relates in any way to the Wisconsin Idea?
I’m often thinking about different ways to share knowledge and engage communities (I will try to turn any genre of writing into a zine!) as well as how research can be used in ways to support organizing work and movement building, both in building out a research process and methods but also in the broader stakes and interventions of different kinds of writing. I’m also a co-leader of the Asian American Feminist Collective, and we create different media projects and community programs for political education work.
Hobbies/other interests:
Aspiring to have time to bike and swim; reading YA novels and watching reality television, especially romance, survival shows, and cooking competitions; being able to really indulge in an activity, whether that’s cooking, going on a long walk, or napping!