Martin Joseph Ponce

Martin Joseph Ponce is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at Ohio State University (OSU), where he has served since 2005, advancing to his current rank in 2011. He specializes in Asian American, African American, and comparative U.S. ethnic literatures, with a focus on queer of color critique, queer diasporic studies, and U.S. empire histories. His affiliations include leadership roles: co-coordinator of the Asian American Studies Program (2006–2012, 2014–2015), coordinator of the Sexuality Studies Program (2015–2019), and co-organizer of the Diversity and Identity Studies Collective (DISCO) at OSU (2006–2012).

Dr. Ponce holds a Ph.D. in English from Rutgers University (2005), an M.A. in English from Rutgers (2002), and a B.S. in English and Philosophy with honors from the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1997). His research interrogates intersections of race, queerness, and imperialism, particularly in Filipino American and Asian American literary contexts.

His work explores themes such as queer critiques of the Asian American movement, diasporic Filipino literature’s engagement with transnationalism and U.S. exceptionalism, and queer critiques of U.S. militarism. Key publications include Beyond the Nation: Diasporic Filipino Literature and Queer Reading (2012) and co-edited volumes like Samuel Steward and the Pursuit of the Erotic (2017).

His scholarship spans literary analysis, theoretical frameworks, and archival work, with articles addressing topics like queer diasporic crossings, racial fetishism, and anticolonial feminist poetry. Ponce’s contributions bridge literary studies with critical race and queer theory, emphasizing decolonial and transnational perspectives.