Aileen Kuang
Aileen Kuang is a junior studying English and Informatics with a minor in the Comparative History of Ideas. She began her journey at UW through the Early Entrance Program at the Robinson Center for Young Scholars, and is a Ronald E. McNair scholar in addition to being a Mary Gates Research Scholar.
Aileen’s research is, broadly speaking, located at the intersection of critical race studies, science & technology studies, and posthumanism. She is interested in how the categories of non-whiteness and non-humanness map onto robots in the popular imagination, foreclosing possibilities of being for these machines ‒ can the cyborg still save us if it is immersed in racist and speciesist dialogues? Aileen’s current project on the Blade Runner films is driven by this overarching question; she examines the films’ replicants as racialized model minorities, objects of both fear and desire. Some of her academic work is forthcoming in Plurality from the University of Edinburgh.
Outside of her research, Aileen is a creative writer; her work has been published in Bricolage’s digital zine. She is also involved with community-based work in the Seattle area. She has been a fellow at Powerful Voices and currently serves as an intern on the board of directors at All Girl Everything Ultimate Program, where she regularly facilitates workshops about environmental and social justice topics for youth and adults.
After graduation, Aileen intends to pursue a Ph.D. in English to continue her research, with the ultimate goal of becoming a professor. She is deeply committed to envisioning a liberated and just future for all communities, which motivates her work both within and beyond the academy. The Beinecke Scholarship, in providing support throughout the graduate school admissions process, will assist her in achieving her academic and professional goals.
Goals
Aileen is currently working towards completing her research project on Blade Runner, which she will be presenting on at the 2025 Science Fiction Research Association Conference. She plans on continuing this line of inquiry throughout her senior year, through her English and Informatics thesis projects, and ultimately as part of her Ph.D. research. With this work, she hopes to understand how our technologies are immersed in oppressive racial and species logics, which we can use to transform our relationships with machines and robots for the better.
Tips
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