Summer Kim Lee

Summer Kim Lee is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She joined the UCLA English faculty in 2020 after serving as a Mellon Faculty Fellow in English and a Guarini Dean's Postdoctoral Fellow in English and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Dartmouth College.

Dr. Lee earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Performance Studies from New York University. Her educational background has informed her interdisciplinary approach that bridges performance studies with literary and cultural analysis.

Professor Lee specializes in a rich intersection of fields including feminist theory, queer theory, performance studies, critical race and ethnic studies, and Asian American art, literature, and culture. Her work critically examines how Asian American subjectivity is constructed through cultural production and aesthetic practices. She investigates the tensions between representation and self-representation, particularly in contexts of minoritarian experience. Her research often explores how concepts of "spoiled" or "damaged" subjectivity challenge normative frameworks of repair and success.

Lee's scholarly publications reveal a consistent engagement with contemporary cultural production, particularly focusing on Asian American artists and writers. Her work spans academic journals, popular media outlets, and edited collections, demonstrating her commitment to bridging academic and public discourse. She has published in venues ranging from ASAP/Journal and Social Text to The New York Times Magazine and The Nation, reflecting the broad relevance of her interdisciplinary approach.

• Guest Co-editor: "Performances of Contingency: Feminist Relationality and Asian American Studies After the Institution," special issue of Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory (2020)
• Guest editor: "Someone Else's Object: On Minoritarian Critique," essay cluster for Post45 Contemporaries (2019)

Professor Lee is currently completing her first book, Spoiled: Asian American Hostility and the Damage of Repair, forthcoming from Duke University Press. This work represents a significant contribution to Asian American literary and cultural studies, offering new frameworks for understanding minoritarian aesthetic practices that resist normative narratives of success and integration.