We invite the UCLA community to meet Natalia Duong, a candidate for the first UCLA Disability Studies and Institute for Society and Genetics faculty position.

Lecture Description:

Agent Orange is commonly known as the main chemical compound that was used in herbicidal warfare during the Vietnam-American War; however, the geographies of chemical spread extend beyond Southeast Asia. This talk introduces the concept of a chemical diaspora as a network of harm but also a source of political solidarity that connects populations who are exposed to herbicides. Through analyses of US military archives and the chemical repertoires of contemporary global agricultural markets, I unpack the ways that military technologies are domesticated in order to debilitate, re-expose, and repair transnational ecologies today.

Biography:

Natalia Duong is an Assistant Professor of Asian American studies and science and technology studies at the University of California, Davis. Her interdisciplinary research weaves disability studies, feminist science studies, transnational Asian American studies, performance studies, and studies of the environment. Her current book project, Chemical Diasporas, examines the spread of the herbicide Agent Orange through a study of cultural media, disability law, and community-engaged research in Vietnam. She received a Ph.D. in Performance Studies with a Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender, and Sexuality from the University of California, Berkeley and was a UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in English at UCLA from 2022-2024. Her research has been published in the Canadian Review of American Studies, the Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, Dance Research, Catalyst: feminism, theory, technoscience, and in the edited anthology Crip Genealogies (Duke University Press).

Event Details:

Lecture will be held from 12-1pm. The candidate will be available for additional Q&A and networking from 1-1:30pm. Lunch will be served, RSVP required.