Raissa DeSmet

Raissa DeSmet is a Teaching Professor at the University of Washington Bothell's School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences, with affiliations as Affiliate Faculty at the Southeast Asia Center and Adjunct Curator at The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. Her work bridges Asian visual studies, feminist studies, and critical theory.

• B.A. in Literature from UC Santa Cruz
• Ph.D. in History of Consciousness from UC Santa Cruz

Her teaching emphasizes creating a safe, collaborative classroom environment where theory and material practices intersect. Courses include topics like Southeast Asian visual cultures, colonial representation, and museum studies.

Research explores colonial fantasies in Dutch East Indies representations, focusing on gendered structures and Indonesian resistance to colonial narratives. Current work integrates memoir and autoethnography with traditional analysis.