New JAAS Editor

The AAAS board is proud to announce that Professor Julia H. Lee will be the incoming editor of the Journal of Asian American Studies, the field’s flagship journal. She will work with the current editor, Professor Rick Bonus toward a smooth transition during this current year and will assume the helm in 2026.

Julia H. Lee is professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Irvine. She serves as core faculty in the PhD Program in Culture and Theory and the Program in Global Languages and Communications as well as affiliated faculty in the Department of English and the Center for Critical Korean Studies. She is the author of The Racial Railroad (New York University Press, 2022), Understanding Maxine Hong Kingston (University of South Carolina Press, 2018), and Interracial Encounters: Reciprocal Representations in African and Asian American Literatures, 1896-1937 (New York University Press, 2011). With Josephine Lee, she is co-editor of Asian American Literature in Transition, 1850-1930 (Cambridge University Press, 2021), which was a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2022. 

Her current book project, “Coughing on Asians during COVID-19,” examines the impact of coronavirus in the construction of Asian racial difference, arguing that Asian American and Asian diasporic cultural productions in the post-pandemic era are concerned with imagining alternative visions of selfhood that do not rely on capitalist notions of accumulation or affect.

When not referring to herself in the third person, Julia serves on the editorial board of J19: The Journal of Nineteenth Century Americanists and is a podcast host for New Books Network. Courses she has taught include Coming of Age in Asian America, the Asian American “West,” Race and Urban Space, Asian American Popular Culture, Korean American Experience, and Asian American Communities. 

Professor Julia Lee’s vision for JAAS:

I’d like to begin by acknowledging Professor Rick Bonus for his editorship of JAAS and thank him for his service and support. Since its founding, JAAS has been a crucial venue for the exploration of Asian American Studies research, activism, and pedagogy. As editor, I will work to maintain the journal’s commitment to publishing innovative scholarship that questions and crosses disciplinary boundaries Like previous editors, I will prioritize feedback and mentorship for early career and contingent scholars whose work contributes to the richness and diversity of the field. Finally, I welcome proposals for special issues or innovative forms of scholarship that expand our collective notion of what critical writing can be.