Sophia J. Mao, an assistant professor of Literatures in English, is among the scholars selected to participate in the National Humanities Center's 2026 .
Each summer resident works on an individual humanities-related research project in a private office in the Center鈥檚 secluded, light-filled building, and participates in the Center鈥檚 storied intellectual community. They will also have access to professional development seminars and lectures, the Center鈥檚 library services, and daily meals prepared on site.
Mao鈥檚 research and teaching interests include contemporary Asian American literature, 20th- and 21st- century Global Anglophone literature, affect theory, and media studies.
During her residency, she will be working on a book manuscript entitled 鈥淔eeling Onwards: Model Minority Affects in Contemporary Asian American Literature鈥 that argues that contemporary Asian American narratives surrounding upward mobility utilize unique affective strategies that sidestep, without denying, racial trauma as an origin story of Asian America.
