Huan He

Assistant Professor of English
Hooley Family Dean's Faculty Fellow

I am a scholar and teacher of Asian American literature and culture, focusing on race, technology, and digital games. Right now, my principal efforts have been directed toward writing a book titled The Racial Interface: Informatics and the Asian American Technological Imagination. The project is an interdisciplinary study of Asian American literature and media since 1942 that creatively represent a transforming informatic world and its human stakes. You can find my research in Configurations, College Literature, Media-N, Just Tech, and the anthology Made in Asia/America: Why Video Games Were Never (Really) About Us (Duke UP, 2024). With the DISCO Network, I co-authored Technoskepticism: Between Possibility and Refusal (Stanford UP, 2025). I also write poems, which appear in Poetry, New England Review, Sewanee Review, A Public Space, Beloit Poetry Journal, and other venues.

Methodologically, I am fascinated by the connections between humanistic interpretation and scientific thinking. Literature and media (broadly defined) have served me well in these endeavors, and I continue to find insights when I think with diverse and often surprising cultural objects. The vast repertoire of Asian American culture is often the starting point for my thinking. I bring the conceptual insights of Asian American studies to broader cross-disciplinary conversations about technology and power in media studies, digital studies, and game studies. This aim also necessitates collaborative and creative modes of research, writing, and expression.

Right now, I am pursuing a few additional research topics all at different stages: 1) a second book on race and Web3 imaginaries; 2) an essay on the cultural figure of the NPC (non-playable character); 3) a theoretical essay on whiteness, property, and the ludic concept of the “magic circle.” 4) the Asian American conservative and English Professor S.I. Hayakawa and his technocratic theories of language. Beyond my scholarship, I am also preparing my first full-length poetry collection, which reflects on the queerness of the American Prairies. With a group of Asian Americanist Critical Technology Studies scholars (we call ourselves “The A.I.eeeee! Collective”), I am a co-author on another book tentatively titled Feeling the Future: Asian American Takes on Techno-Empire (under review).

For prospective students interested in our wonderful PhD program: I am open to discussions about research, especially as they pertain to my expertise or my methodological commitments.