Elda Tsou

Associate Professor
B.A., 1996, University of California, Berkeley, EnglishM.A., 1999, University of Chicago, Master of Arts in the HumanitiesPh.D., 2008, Columbia University, English and Comparative Literature

Elda Tsou joined the faculty at St. John’s University in the fall of 2007. She offers undergraduate and graduate courses on Asian American literature, American ethnic literature and literary theory. Her areas of inquiry are Asian American studies, Ethnic Studies, literary theory and theories of racial formation. Broadly, her research explores the formal relationship between literature and society, particularly in the context of ethnic literature. She has published work on how the social formation is supplemented by literary interventions. Currently, she is completing a manuscript on Asian American critical reading practices.

Nov 16-19, 2012. American Studies Association (San Juan, Puerto Rico). “Figuring Empire: Truong’s The Book of Salt.”

June 2011. Association for Asian American Studies (New Orleans, LA). “ Asian American Literary Theory.”

June 2011. Association for Asian American Studies (New Orleans, LA). “‘This Doesn’t Mean What You’ll Think’: Native Speaker ’s Spy as Allegory.”

Nov 2010. Public lecture, “Catachresis: Blu’s Hanging and Form.” University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL.

Oct 2010, “Asian American Epistemologies” Symposium, Workshop (St. John’s University).

May 2009, Boston College Asian American Studies Symposium, “Reading Form in No-No Boy’s Preface.”

April 2009, Assoc. for Asian American Studies, Honolulu, HI, “Problematizing Reference in Blu’s Hanging.”

April 2008, Assoc. for Asian American Studies, “Trope for an Asian Americanist Methodology.” Atlanta, GA. National

April 2007, Assoc. for Asian American Studies, “Figuring History: Encounters between Literature and History in China Men and The Book of Salt.” NY, NY.

Unquiet Tropes: Form, Race, Asian American Literature(forthcoming from Temple University Press)

 “‘This Doesn’t Mean What You’ll Think’: Native Speaker, Allegory, Race.” PMLA 128.3: 575-89.

  “Catachresis: Blu’s Hanging and the Epistemology of the Given.” Journal of Asian American Studies 14.2 (2011): 283-303.

 Elda Tsou and Susie Pak, eds. Asian American Epistemologies. Spec. iss of Journal of Asian American Studies14.2 (2011).