معرفی
Hsuan L. Hsu is a Professor in the Department of English at the University of California, Davis, where he has been a faculty member since 2008. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley (2004) and an A.B. from Harvard University (1998). His academic work bridges American literature, race studies, cultural geography, and the environmental humanities.
- Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 2004
- A.B., Harvard University, 1998
Hsuan L. Hsu’s research focuses on the intersections of race, space, and sensory experience in American literature. He is particularly known for his work on olfactory studies, environmental justice, and transnational American literature. His scholarship explores how sensory perception—especially smell—shapes cultural and racial formations, and how literary texts represent atmospheric disparities and environmental risk. He has made significant contributions to the fields of Asian diasporic literature and comparative racialization.
His recent publications reveal a sustained engagement with olfactory aesthetics, BIPOC speculative fiction, and the politics of smell in art and literature. Themes such as urban heat, thermoception, colonial fragrance legacies, and post-apocalyptic geographies recur across his work, reflecting a deep interdisciplinary approach that connects literary analysis with environmental science, art, and social justice.
His scientific awards include the Obama Fellowship, ACLS Fellowship, NEH Summer Stipend, Andy Warhol Arts Writers Grant, and the Don D. Walker Award. He has also been recognized with the Margaret Church Memorial Prize and the Nineteenth Century Studies Emerging Scholars Award.
- Obama Fellowship, Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies, 2019
- ACLS Fellowship, 2018-19
- Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant, 2018
- NEH Summer Stipend, 2012
- Don D. Walker Award, 2010
- Margaret Church Memorial Prize, 2006
Hsuan has served on the editorial boards of major journals including American Literature, Literary Geographies, Journal of Transnational American Studies, and Senses and Society, where he is the book review editor. His research has been supported by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Davis Humanities Institute, and the UC Humanities Research Institute. He has led and participated in numerous interdisciplinary research seminars and grant-funded projects on environmental risk, sensory studies, and transnational American literature.
He is currently working on a book about olfactory worldmaking, exploring how artists and writers use smell as a medium for speculative and decolonial worldbuilding. His teaching includes courses on post-1865 American literature and interdisciplinary environmental humanities.
