Betsy Huang
Dean of the College
Associate Professor, English
Klein Endowed Chair
Scholarly Interests
Genre Theory and Fiction | Critical Ethnic Studies | Asian American Literature and Culture | Science Fictions and Futurisms
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Betsy Huang is Associate Provost and Dean of the College, the Andrea B. and Peter D. Klein ’64 Distinguished Professor, and Associate Professor of English at Clark University. She was Clark’s inaugural Chief Officer of Diversity and Inclusion from 2013 to 2016, and also served as Director of the Center for Gender, Race, and Area Studies from 2017 to 2019. As Dean of the College, she is responsible for the development and implementation of undergraduate academic programs and policies toward ensuring the quality of Clark’s signature LEEP educational experience.
Huang first came to Clark in 2003 when she joined the English Department as its first specialist in American multiethnic literature. She teaches and researches in the overlapping spheres of ethnic American and Asian American literature, science fiction, genre theory, and critical race and ethnic studies. As a faculty member, her teaching was always focused on literatures on the margins: narratives of and by people living in spaces of cultural and historical invisibility. As dean, she follows the same lodestar of educational excellence for all: that all Clark students, no matter their background, receive the strongest education and preparation for the world beyond.
Courses taught by Dean Huang include Ethnic America: Literature, Theory, Politics; Fictions of Asian America; Major American Writers II; Studies in Contemporary Literature: Speculative Fiction; Science Fiction and the Mind of the Other (with Scott Hendricks, Philosophy); Race, Genre, and Autobiography (with Shelly Tenenbaum, Sociology); Speculative fiction: Ecologies and Technologies; and the English Senior Capstone.
Dean Huang has published four books — a monograph, Contesting Genres in Contemporary Asian American Fiction (Palgrave, 2010), and three co-edited essay collections: Asian American Literature in Transition: 1996-2020 (Cambridge University Press, 2021); Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education and Societal Contexts (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018); and Techno-Orientalism: Imagining Asia in Speculative Fiction, History, and Media (Rutgers UP, 2015). She is currently co-editing “Techno-Orientalism 2: New Forms and Formulations,” a follow-up volume to the first Techno-Orientalism anthology and forthcoming in 2024. Her work has appeared in The Cambridge Companion to American Horror, The Cambridge Companion to Asian American Literature, Journal of Asian American Studies, and MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the U.S., among others. When she is not deaning and researching, she is traveling, playing board games with her family, reading too much science fiction, and preparing for robot takeovers.
Degrees
- Ph.D. in English and American Literature, University of Rochester, 2004
- M.A. in English and American Literature, University of Rochester, 1999
- M.A. in English and American Literature, Kent State University, 1996
- B.A. in English, State University of New York, Buffalo, 1989
Affiliated Department(s)
- English Department
- English, Center for Gender, Race, and Area Studies (CGRAS)
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Scholarly and Creative Works
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Techno-Orientalism 2: New Forms and Formulations (edited volume; under contract)
Asian American Studies Today
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2024
Rutgers University Press
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"Ideation to Publication: The Whys and Hows of Edited Essay Collections"
Association for Asian American Studies Annual Conference
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Long Beach, CA
April
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2023
Sponsored by Association for Asian American Studies
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Published by Flame Tree Publishing of Simon & Schuster
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2023
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"Asian/American Gaming: Techno-Orientalism, Open World Empire, and the Race Card."
"Fair Games" Symposium, Higgins School of Humanities
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Clark University, Worcester, MA
March
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2022
Sponsored by Higgins School of Humanities, Clark University
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"Half-Baked Ideas": Share Your Project-in-Progress and Get Feedback
Association for Asian American Studies Annual Convention
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Denver, CO
April
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2022
Sponsored by Association for Asian American Studies
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Published by Modern Language Association of America
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2022
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Cambridge Companion to American Horror
Chapter: "Science Fiction and the Weird"Published by Cambridge University Press
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2022
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Asian American Literature in Transition, 1996-2020
Asian American Literature in Transition
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2021
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Vol. Volume 4
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ISBN #9781108914109
Cambridge University Press
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Published by Palgrave Macmillan
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2019
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Published by Palgrave Macmillan
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2018
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Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education and Societal Contexts.
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2018
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ISBN #978-3319701769
Palgrave Macmillan
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CTRL+ALT: A Culture Lab on Imagined Futures
Science Fiction Flash Fiction Exhibit and Performances
Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center
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Soho, New York
Nov. 12, 2016
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Cambridge Companion to Asian American Literature
Chapter: "Popular Genres and New Media"Published by Cambridge University Press
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2015
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Techno-Orientalism: Imagining Asia in Speculative Fiction, History, Media.
Asian American Studies Today
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2015
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ISBN #9780813570648
Rutgers University Press
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Contesting Genres in Contemporary Asian American Fiction
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2010
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ISBN #978-0-230-10831-8
Palgrave Macmillan
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Awards & Grants
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"Piecing Together Ching Ho Cheng: On Asian American Abstraction and Expression"
Clark University
Aug. 29, 2022 - May. 31, 2023
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Andrea B. and Peter D. Klein '64 Distinguished Professorship
Clark University
2018
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Outstanding Undergraduate Teacher of the Year
Clark University
2014
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Outstanding Undergraduate Advisor of the Year
Clark University
2012
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Outstanding Undergraduate Teacher of the Year
Clark University
2006
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Edward Hodgkins Junior Faculty Award
Clark University
2006
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