Rachel C. Lee

Rachel C. Lee is a Professor of Gender Studies, English, and the Institute of Society and Genetics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She served as Immediate Past Director of the Center for the Study of Women and has been a leading voice in Asian American studies, environmental humanities, and biopolitical theory.

Her research explores frameworks connecting environmental illness (chronic Lyme, MCS) with anti-racist and anti-colonial scholarship. Notably, she co-leads the UC Humanities Research Institute-sponsored collective 'How We Make It: Imagining Medical Justice After Covid’s Long Haul' and serves as Co-PI for the University of California's multicampus program 'Abolition Medicine and Disability Justice.'

Lee's recent publications analyze intersections of molecular intimacy, care labor, and atmospheric toxicity in literature and art. Her 2022 paper on Ocean Vuong's On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous theorizes 'affective chemistries of care' and 'slow activism' through queer and crip epistemologies. She has also contributed extensively to feminist discourse on chemical exposure and metabolic aesthetics.

Scientific awards include the Culture Studies Book Prize from the Journal of Asian American Studies (2004). Her teaching portfolio includes graduate seminars on 'Femiqueer Corporealities' and undergraduate courses like 'Los Angeles: Layers and Landscapes.'