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Josephine D Lee

Photo of Josephine D Lee

Contact Me

jolee@umn.edu
612-625-9510

English Language and Lit.
310D Lind Hall
207 Church St SE

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Josephine Lee is Professor of English and Asian American Studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and the Editor in Chief of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Asian American Literature and Culture. She is currently working on a new project on the intersections of blackface and yellowface in nineteenth- and early twentieth century American theater and performance. Her previous books include The Japan of Pure Invention: Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado (2010) and Performing Asian America: Race and Ethnicity on the Contemporary Stage (1997). She has also co-edited Asian American Plays for a New Generation (with R.A. Shiomi and Don Eitel, 2011) and Re/collecting Early Asian America: Essays in Cultural History (with Imogene Lim and Yuko Matsukawa, 2002) as well as Asian American Literature in Transition, Volume I: 1850-1930 (with Julia H. Lee).

Educational Background & Specialties

Educational Background

  • Ph.D.: English Language and Literature, Princeton University.
  • B.S.: Humanities, Physics, MIT.

Specialties

  • Dramatic literature, theater history, performance studies
  • Asian American studies
Courses Taught
  • Graduate seminar "Race and Performance"
  • Asian American Cultural Criticism
  • Imagining Asian America
  • Asian America Through Arts and Culture
  • Asian American Literature and Drama
  • Modern and Contemporary Drama
  • Shakespeare
Publications
  • The Oxford Encyclopedia of Asian American Literature and Culture. Lee, Josephine, Oxford University Press, Author, 2020. Link
  • “Yellowface: Historical and Contemporary Contexts": Lee, Josephine, Oxford University Press, Oxford Encyclopedia of Asian American Literature and Culture, 2019. Link
  • "Decorative Orientalism": Lee, Josephine, Julia H. Lee, Cambridge University Press, Asian American Literature in Transition, Volume I: 1850 – 1930, 2020.
  • “Double Take” on Iona Rozeal Brown's Untitled I Female" : Lee, Josephine, Elon Cook, Rhode Island School of Design’s Museum of Art , Manual 10 , 59-61, Spring 2018. Download
  • "East West Players and Asian American Theatre: A Retrospective": Lee, Josephine, Theatre Survey, 57:2 238-­241, 2016. Download
  • "Asian American Drama": Lee, Josephine, edited by Daniel Kim and Crystal Parikh, Cambridge, The Cambridge Companion to Asian American Literature, 2015. Link
  • “’Something Beyond and Above’: David Henry Hwang’s Revision of Flower Drum Song": Lee, Josephine, edited by Esther Kim Lee, Methuen, The Theatre of David Henry Hwang, 2015. Link
  • "Asian Americans on Stage in the 19th Century": Lee, Josephine, edited by Rajini Srikanth and Min Song, Cambridge, The Cambridge History of Asian American Literature, 2015. Link
  • "Performance": Lee, Josephine, edited by Linda Trinh Vo, K. Scott Wong, and Cathy Schlund-­‐Vials, NYU, Keywords for Asian American Studies, 2015. LinkDownload
  • Asian American Plays for a New Generation. Lee, Josephine, R.A. Shiomi and Don Eitel, Temple University Press, Co-Editor, 2011. Link
  • The Japan of Pure Invention: The Racial History of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado. Lee, Josephine, University of Minnesota Press, Author, 2010. Link
  • "Bridging the Big Twelve--The Committee on Institutional Cooperation Asian American Studies Consortium". Lee, Josephine, Author, October 2009. Download
  • “Teaching A Doll House, Rachel, and Marisol: Domestic Ideals, Possessive Individuals, and Modern Drama“; 50th anniversary special issue, Modern Drama 50.4 (Winter 2007): 634-653. Download
  • "Asian American (Im)mobility: Perspectives on the College Plays 1937-1955.“: Lee, Josephine, Temple University Press, Recovered Legacies: Authority and Identity in Early Asian American Literature, 2006. Download
  • “Asian America is in the Heartland: Performing Korean Adoptee Experience": Lee, Josephine, Indiana University Press, Asian North American Identities: Beyond the Hyphen, edited by Eleanor Ty and Donald Goellnicht, Indiana University Press, 2004. Download
  • "Racial Actors, Liberal Myths": Lee, Josephine, XCP: Cross Cultural Poetics, 13 , 2003. Download
  • Re/collecting Early Asian America: Essays in Cultural History. Lee, Josephine, co-edited with Imogene Lim and Yuko Matsukawa, Temple University Press Series on Asian American History and Culture, Editor, 2002. Link
  • Performing Asian America: Race and Ethnicity on the Contemporary Stage. Lee, Josephine, Temple University Press Series on Asian American History and Culture, Author, 1997. Link
  • “Bodies, Revolutions, and Magic: Cultural Nationalism and Racial Fetishism”: Lee, Josephine, Modern Drama, 44 72-90, Spring 2001. Download
  • “Stoppard’s (Post)Colonial Geography: In the Native State and Indian Ink”: Lee, Josephine, Cambridge University Press, The Cambridge Companion to Tom Stoppard, 38-51, 2001. Download
  • “Linguistic Imperialism, the Early Abbey Theatre, and the Translations of Brian Friel”: Lee, Josephine, Routledge, Imperialism and the Drama, 164-181, 1995. Download
  • “Between Immigration and Hyphenation: The Problems of Theorizing Asian American Theater”: Lee, Josephine, The Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism , 13 45-69, Fall 1998. Download
Awards
  • National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship , January 1, 2019 - December 31, 2019
  • Association for Asian American Studies Lifetime Achievement Award, 2016
  • Ruth Christie Award for Excellence in Teaching, Department of English, University of Minnesota, 2015
  • Outstanding Contributions to Postbaccalaureate, Graduate, and Professional Education Award, 2009
  • Horace T. Morse-Minnesota Alumni Award for Outstanding Contribution to Undergraduate Education, 2002 - 2003