Erin Dandia

Erin Dandia (she/her) received a M.A. in East Asian Studies from New York University. Her master’s thesis, “Fluid Being: Analyzing Identity in Motion Through the Works of Early Twentieth Century Racialized and Colonial Mixed Writers,” compares double vision in Nella Larsen’s Passing (1929) and Kim Sa-ryang’s “Into the Light” (“光の中に”, 1939). Underpinned by historical analysis and the theories of W.E.B. Du Bois’s intermingling and Takeuchi Yoshimi’s internal cultural hybridity, this paper examines the ability of fluid being, as represented in narrative, to deconstruct oppressive systems of power as well as illuminate global currents of plurality.

Erin’s Ph.D., aspirations continue the work of comparing early twentieth century East Asian (Japanese and Korean) literature with literature of the Harlem Renaissance, transitioning into queer(ing) literature. She is interested in this transnational pairing due to their unique historical and cultural relationships toward homosexuality, gender nonconformity, and queer embodiment. Meanwhile, modernist aesthetics like experimentation and temporality nourish a multiplicity of gazes, thus facilitating a site/sight of queer potentiality. One possible site/sight looks at these literatures’ shared interest in stars and twilight. Through a close reading of descriptive elements in conjunction with Marxist and queer/feminist theory, Erin’s work seeks a reparative hermeneutics that transforms the increasingly queerphobic world of the early twentieth century into a source of nourishment. In the process, Erin hopes to amplify and bridge marginalized voices across the globe.

In her academic journey, Erin also studied abroad at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan, Korea University in Seoul, South Korea and Shanghai University in Shanghai, China.