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LuLing Osofsky

My current research focuses on the visual culture (contemporary art, architecture & mass media) of the Arctic, particularly Svalbard Norway, and its geopolitical implications for global collective memory
Research Interests: 

Visual culture of violence, war, and ecological crises // documentary photography and film // the Arctic  // museums, memorials and monuments  // trauma // the sublime // sports // Holocaust Studies // Critical Mixed Race and Asian American Studies // 

Office Hours: 

Kresge 242 // by appointment

Selected Publications: 

Let's Out Asia, forthcoming, Asian American Literary Review.

Nuclear in Miniature: Atomic Tourism in New Mexico, High Country News (May 2019).

Lay of the Land: Svalbard Archipelago, Orion Magazine (September/October 2016). 

Wild Wild East: Finding Asia in the West LA Review of Books The Offing (April 2016).

Kent Johnson's/Araki Yasuda's/Tosa Motokiyu's Mad Daughter and the Big Bang Paris Review Daily (May 2013).

Chop City: Labor in an Alaskan Salmon Cannery May/June, Orion Magazine (May/June 2012). author interview

Selected Presentations: 
  • Nuclear in Miniature: Atomic Tourism in New Mexico, American Association of Geographers, Washington DC, April 2019.
  • Classical Landscapes, Contemporary Ruins: Political Reclamation in Zhang Kechun's Drinking Tea by the River, Getty Graduate Symposium, J. Paul Getty Museum, January 2019.
  • Based on a (Mostly) True Story: Conflicting Cinematic Portrayals of Jewish Champions Boxing at Auschwitz, Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association, November 2018.
  • Alternate Cartographies: A Chinatown on the Plains, Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association, November 2017.
  • Boxing in the Camps: Conflicting Depictions of Violence, Spectacle and the Fate of the Jewish Champion Boxer in Triumph of the Spirit and Victor Young Perez,  Film Studies Graduate Student Organization, "Action! Performance, Sport and Moving Bodies in Film and Visual Media," University of Pittsburgh, September 2017.
  • Wild Wild East: Mapping an Imagined Chinatown, UC Berkeley/Stanford Symposium, SF MoMA, April 2017. 
  • The Ethics of Monument Design: Memorializing Victims of Hate Crimes, Shepard Symposium for Social Justice, University of Wyoming, April 2016.
  • Designing and Exhibiting Atlases within an MFA Curriculum, Association of Writers and Writing Programs, Chicago, IL, March 2012.
Honors and Awards: 

Arts Dean Excellence Award, UC Santa Cruz, 2019

Social Science Research Council Dissertation Development Program Fellowship 2018

Graduate Student Association Travel Grant, UC Santa Cruz, 2018

Visual Studies Research & Travel Award, UC Santa Cruz, 2016-2019

Regents Fellowship, UC Santa Cruz, 2016-2017

Center for Archival Research and Training (CART) Fellowship, UC Santa Cruz, 2016-2017

Artist Residencies awarded by: Arctic Circle (2014); Ledig House/Writers Omi (2013); Mesa Refuge (2013); Lighthouse Works (2013); Millay Colony (declined); Vermont Studio Center (2013); Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts (2012); Shortgrass Center for Ecological Research (2011)

Promoting Intellectual Engagement Teaching Award (for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching), University of Wyoming, 2012

James Orr Willits Prize in Ethics, University of Wyoming, 2011

Arts & Sciences Dean's Award, University of Wyoming, 2011

Social Justice Research Center Fellowship, University of Wyoming, 2010

Darmisiswa Fellowship, Indonesian Ministry of Culture, 2007-2008

Freeman Foundation Fellowship for East Asian Studies, 2005

Education and Training: 
MFA, University of Wyoming
BA, Wesleyan University