Performing Vulnerability: Risking Art and Life in the Burmese Diaspora

Emily Hue

Join us for a conversation with Emily Hue, author of Performing Vulnerability: Risking Art and Life in the Burmese Diaspora (University of Washington Press, 2025) in which she explores how diasporic Burmese artists navigate the intricate intersections of art, politics, and humanitarianism. In this book talk, Hue provides a critical examination of the economic and social value placed on representations of suffering of artists living in the aftermath of military rule. This event invites further dialogue with the audience on the ethical implications of this value within the global arts and humanitarian markets in the United States and beyond. Topics discussed include the current political moment in Myanmar post-coup as well as how immigrant and exiled artists work against “doubled” authoritarian afterlives in the United States.

Emily Hue is an Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies and core faculty member of UC Riverside’s Southeast Asia,Text, Rituals, and Performance (SEATRiP) program. She is an interdisciplinary scholar who specializes in studies of humanitarianism, Asian American Studies, visual art, performance, queer studies, Southeast Asia and diaspora. Hue earned her Ph.D. at New York University in Social and Cultural Analysis in the field of American Studies and B.A. in Women’s Studies from Vassar College. She has previously held a UC Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship in Comparative Literature and Languages at UC Riverside. Her book Performing Vulnerability: Risking Art and Life in the Burmese Diaspora (University of Washington Press, 2025) uses visual and performance analysis, ethnographic interviews and archival research to explore how diasporic artists and activists from Burma deal with both the afterlives of military violence by the Burmese state and the vagaries of resettlement in the diaspora. She hails from Brooklyn, NY.

Part of “Transversal Re/Configurations: Flesh, Bodies, and Matter in Motion”

Current Topics in Dance Research Colloquium Series: January 08 - March 12, 2026

– María Regina Firmino-Castillo, Curator & Coordinator 

Transversal Re/Configurations: Flesh, Bodies, and Matter in Motion was made possible through generous sponsorships from the California Center for Native Nations; the Rupert Costo Endowment in American Indian Affairs, University of California, Riverside; the CHASS Dean's Office and the Center for Ideas and Society; and the Departments of Music, Ethnic Studies, Gender & Sexuality Studies, and Media & Cultural Studies.

Many thanks to: taisha paggett (Department of Dance, Chairperson), Anthea Kraut (Department of Dance, Vice-Chair), Courtney Brubaker (Events Specialist), and Pete Pace (Technical Director) for their generous support of the Colloquium, and to Jonathan Ritter (Department of Music, Chairperson) and María del Rosario Acosta López (Professor, Hispanic Studies Department) for their vision and collaboration.

For Accessibility and Accommodations, contact mariafc@ucr.edu 

Photo credits: 

Photo of Emily Hue by Keith Miyake, 2025.  

Book cover photo: © University of Washington Press, 2025.

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