Kim Thien Tran

Kim Thien Tran

5006 Telegraph Avenue #5

Oakland, CA 94609

619-701-0771

Education

·  Ph.D, University of California, Berkeley, Comparative Ethnic Studies with Designated Emphasis in Gender, Women's and Sexuality Studies (expected completion May 2017)

·  M.A. University of California, Berkeley, Comparative Ethnic Studies, May 2012

·  B.A. San Diego State University, Women’s Studies and Political Science

·  2008 Winner Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis: Gendering the Globe: Global Identity in a Post-NAFTA Age, the International Relations of Campbell’s Soup

Honors and Awards

·  Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor, Department of Ethnic Studies, 2014

·  American Association of University Women Dissertation Fellowship, 2014-2015

·  Lucie Cheng Prize Nominee, “But We’re Still Here: Queer Diasporic Praxis Beyond Coalition: Vietnamese American Queer Diasporic Praxis and the Post-Katrina Struggle for Environmental Justice”, 2013

·  Dean’s Summer Research Grant, 2011

·  Chancellor’s Fellowship, University of California Berkeley, 2010

Research Interests

U.S. Based Women of Color Feminism, Transnational Feminist Theory, Queer of Color Critique, Neoliberal Critique, Critical Diaspora Studies, Decolonial Theory, Post-Colonial Studies, Asian American Studies, Critical Refugee Studies

Relevant Teaching Experience

·  Lecturer: ES103: The Personal Becomes Political: Critical Race Perspectives in Feminist Movements, Spring 2015

ES 103 is an upper division undergraduate seminar engaging feminism as an intersectional movement. The class emphasizes the hidden histories and work of women of color in feminist movements and how feminism itself can be reimagined through gender, race and class.

·  Lecturer: Asian American Studies R2A: Gender and Colonialism in Asian America, Spring 2014

Asian American Studies R2A assists students in acquiring critical thinking and writing skills while providing a basic introduction to contemporary iterations of colonialism in Asian America

·  Graduate Student Instructor: Comparative Ethnic Studies 41AC: A History of Social Protest Movements from the 1960s Onward, Fall 2013

An introductory, comparative, and interdisciplinary study of Native American, Chicano/Latino, African American, and Asian American social movements from 1960 to the present. The course traces the development of movements in response to racial, class, gender, and political inequality in the context of U.S. politics and history.

·  Graduate Student Instructor: Comparative Ethnic Studies 11AC: Introduction to Theories and Concepts of Race and Identity, Spring 2013

Ethnic Studies 11AC provides students with an introduction to basic theories of race, class and gender in the United States. Students read and discuss the ways in which these phenomena structure social, economic and political life.

·  Graduate Student Instructor: Asian American/Asian Diaspora Studies R2A, Fall 2012

Reading and Composition

Asian American Studies R2A assists students in acquiring critical thinking and writing skills and provides a basic introduction to contemporary issues in the work of Asian American writers.

·  Outreach Coordinator, LGBTQ Youth Space, 2008-2010

Cultivated queer cultural competency by facilitating community-designed curriculum to youth ages 14-25, community-based organizations, and social service agencies. Conducted support groups and organized activist events.

·  Reader, Women’s Studies 102, 2007-2008

Evaluated and graded research papers for an upper division course of undergraduate peers according to a mutually determined rubric. Conferred and worked closely with university faculty to analyze curriculum and class timetable.

Facilitated Workshops

·  Eating Disorders: Not Just for Straight Women!

Western Regional LGBTQIA College Conference 2013, University of California Santa Cruz

·  Labors of Love, Love as Labor: Decolonizing Intimate Relationships in Social Justice Movements

Empowering Women of Color Conference, March 2013

·  Growing Pains: Healing Anti-Black Racism in Asian American Communities

Queer and Asian Conference, UC Berkeley, May 2015

Professional Development/Social Justice Initiatives

·  Executive Editor, NSN: An Ethnic Studies Journal, 2013-Present

Curating art, reviewing publications and organizing layout for the Special Anniversary Issue of the Ethnic Studies Department Journal

·  Collective Member, 2013-Present

Third Woman Press, Bay Area Branch

Spearheaded local fundraising efforts to revive Women of Color publishing house based in San Antonio, Texas.

·  Grant Writer and Researcher, 2013-Present

Asian Immigrant Women’s Advocates, Oakland, CA

Wrote grants and pursued research to better fund and provide infrastructural support to low-income, Asian immigrant women.

·  Assistant Editor Team Visual Media, 2012-2013

Nineteen Sixty-Nine: An Ethnic Studies Journal

Provided assistance with content selection and artistic theme for journal. Collaborated on layout and copyedited journal introduction and various pieces.

·  Social Committee Leader, 2011-2012

Ethnic Studies Graduate Alliance

Created and organized events and/or activities to improve the Ethnic Studies graduate and undergraduate experience including, but not limited to, the Brown Bag Lunch Series, a number of lectures given my advanced graduate students to foster professional development.

·  Research Assistant, 2010-2011

Collaborative for a Healthy California

Transcribed and analyzed data on focus groups of Vietnamese American elders and young people throughout the Bay Area to compile information pertinent to the elimination of toxic elements in predominantly women-led workspaces

Conference Presentations

·  “The Burden of Color and Gender: The Dominique Strauss-Kahn Case”

National Women’s Studies Association Conference, Oakland, CA. November, 2012.

·  “Loving Across Space: Queer Trajectories of Displacement and Decolonial Love in Vietnamese Refugee Communities ”

Crossing Borders: Politics, Cultural Contest, and the Urgency of Space Graduate Student Conference, Los Angeles, CA. March 2013.

·  “But We’re Still Here: Queer Diasporic Praxis Beyond Coalition: Vietnamese American Queer Diasporic Praxis and the Post-Katrina Struggle for Environmental Justice”

Critical Ethnic Studies Conference, Chicago, IL. September, 2013.

Invited Lectures/Speaking Engagements

·  “Our Voices Talking Back to Violence” Keynote Panelist, Empowering Women of Color Conference, University of California, Berkeley. Spring 2014.

·  “Introduction to Southeast Asians in America: History, Geopolitics and Cultural Constructions of Refugees and Resettlement in the Bay Area” University of California, Berkeley. Fall, 2010.

·  Women of Color: Violence on the UC Berkeley Campus

Campus Climate Summit, January 2015

·  Queer and Asian in the Church

The School of Social Welfare, March 2015

·  Beyond Bodies

Othering and Belonging Conference, April 2015

Publications

Op-Eds:

·  Op/Ed Piece—The Feminist Wire—Racism, Sexism and the Myth of the “Confidence Gap” April 2014

·  Op/Ed Piece—Black Girl Dangerous—“White Women Say I’m Too Confident and Other Racist S*&!”, December 2014

·  Op/Ed Piece—The East Bay Express—“A Better Way to Memorialize Oscar Grant”, September 5th, 2013

·  Op/Ed Piece—Front Page, Nation of Change—“How SB5 Will Cost Texas”, July 4th, 2013

·  Op/Ed Piece—The East Bay Express—“The Fairytale Recovery”, March 20th, 2013

·  Op/Ed Piece—The Feminist Wire—“Rethinking Women in Combat”, January 31st, 2013

·  Op/Ed Piece—The Feminist Wire—“What Mourning Malala Yousafazai Might Mean Come November 6th”, October 22, 2012.

·  Op/Ed Piece—Front Page, Nation of Change—“Dear Republicans, This is Not Your Parents’ White House”, November 7th, 2012.

·  Op/Ed Piece—The Feminist Wire—“Savita Halappanavar’s Bell Tolls for All Women”, November 26th, 2012.

·  Op/Ed Piece—Front Page, Nation of Change—“The Financialization of Gender”, December 20th, 2012.

Creative:

·  “Casa Azul: A Love Poem for Tala” in Love is a Political Act (Forum) The Feminist Wire

·  “Snapshots of a Movement” (collaborative) in Nineteen Sixty-Nine: An Ethnic Studies Journal

(2012): Web. May 2012.

·  “Why I Won’t Occupy”, “Photo” and “Strange Bedfellows” in Womyn’s Circle: The Book, Berkeley: Achiote Press. Print. Forthcoming

·  “A Parable” and “To Sojourner Truth” in Asian American Women and Her Digital/Real Body. San Francisco: Asian American Women Artists Association. Print. Forthcoming

·  “It is the Unspoken Words that Will End Us”, Thought Catalog, January 2015

·  “Scribe” in Out of the Depths: Poetry of Poverty—Courage and Resilience Ed. Susan Deborah King Holy Cow Press 2015.

Performances

·  Body Maps: Asian American Women and her Digital/Real Body: A Visual Poetics curated by Margaret Rhee at La Pena Cultural Center: Berkeley, California. May 10, 2012.

·  Asian American Studies: An Ethnic Studies Celebration University Press Books, Berkeley California November 29th, 2012.