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About Me
Erica Maria Cheung is a writer, scholar, and communications specialist based in Philadelphia, PA or Lenapehoking, the ancestral homelands of the Lenape people. She has a Ph.D. from the Culture & Theory program at the University of California, Irvine and she specializes in Gender & Sexuality Studies, Asian American Studies, and Visual Studies. Her professional experiences range from online journalism to non-profit communications and theatre criticism.
Her experiences as a transnational, China-Latina from the borderlands of El Paso, Texas/Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua and Hong Kong have influenced her academic, professional, and creative motivations and concerns. Her work is politically motivated and she is dedicated to using her skills for social change, empowerment, and political education.
Erica is currently the Communications Director at Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders for Civic Empowerment/Education Fund (AAPI FORCE/EF), where she works to build political power for working-class Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders throughout California.
Research
Trained in feminist cultural studies, Erica’'s research is interdisciplinary and centers race and class in analyses of popular culture. Her dissertation, titled “The Umami Era: Asian Americans and the Cultural Economy of Food,” studies and critiques how Asian Americans become visible and consumable through food culture in mainstream U.S. media.
Erica’s research will be published in two upcoming publications, Eating (More) Asian America (NYU Press) and Verge: Global Asias (UMN Press). She has presented her work at the American Studies Association and Asian American Studies Association national conferences and at the Asian American Pacific Islander History meeting, held at the The Huntington Library.
Writing
Erica studied journalism at New York University and interned at various publications, including W Magazine, NBC Universal, and The Huffington Post where she became a regular blogger. Her piece “Fat for an Asian, Flat for a Latina,” earned the attention of NPR’s Latino USA. This piece has also been assigned as suggested reading in an Asian American Studies course at NYU. Erica has gone on to work as a theatre critic, a writer-in-residence for UC Irvine’s School of Humanities, and a freelance writer for Latina magazine. She believes in the power of storytelling to create personal and community knowledge and hopes to write non-academic books one day.
COMMUNICATIONS
Erica is a communications specialist with over a decade’s worth of experience working in media. She has held positions in mass media organizations; international news sites; grassroots, state-wide, and national non-profit organizations; and at institutions of higher education. She is experienced in social media management, internal and external comms, print and video, website development, and public relations. Erica is dedicated to using her communications expertise to create tools for social change, political advocacy, and community organizing.
Teaching
Erica is trained in the Humanities Pedagogical Certificate Program, which emphasizes Humanities-centered education, inclusive course design, feminist pedagogy, and active learning. She has worked as a teaching assistant and lecturer for the departments of Asian American Studies and Gender & Sexuality Studies at UC Irvine. Her courses are social justice oriented and focus on intersectional feminist praxis, Ethnic Studies curricula, and coalitional politics. She has guest lectured at UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton, and Franklin & Marshall College.
CONSULTING
Erica worked as a media consultant for Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties and as a capacity-building and course development consultant for the Asian American Pacific Islander Health Forum. If you are interested in working with her, please fill out the “Contact Me” form below.
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Projects
“One Day In…”
A project for Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties
In 2017, Erica worked on a project for Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties. In collaboration with PP’s Digital Communications Specialist and IndiePop Films, she produced, wrote, and hosted “One Day In…” an 8-part documentary travel series about the cities and communities of Orange and San Bernardino Counties. “One Day In…” was written for an audience of young Latinx and Asian American women and highlights local artists, community organizations, and women and POC-owned businesses in the area. The episodes are shown exclusively in the waiting rooms of Planned Parenthoods in Orange and San Bernardino Counties.
Click here to watch an excerpt from “One Day In Santa Ana” and fill out the contact form below if you would like to see more episodes of the series.
PLACE-BASED
Each 5 to 7 minute episode features one city in Orange or San Bernardino County. The cities include: Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Westminster, Mission Viejo, Anaheim, Orange, Upland, and San Bernardino.
Centering COMMUNITY
Orange and San Bernardino Counties are rich with diverse communities of immigrants and people of color who have brought their food and other cultural practices to Southern California. “One Day In…” highlights locations where communities eat, gather, and express their heritage such as Santa Ana’s Calle Cuatro and Grand Central Art Center, Westminster’s Little Saigon, and Anaheim’s Little Arabia.
For young women
Because this series was created for Planned Parenthood offices across Southern California, it was important that the project highlight the entrepreneurship and community leadership of women in Orange and San Bernardino Counties. Each episode features women from different backgrounds who have made their mark in their communities, such as the daughters of Ms. Dorothy Rose, the founder of the nationally-renown “Mommie Helen’s Bakery” in San Bernardino; Lynda Trang Dai—also known as the “Madonna of Vietnam”—owner of Lynda’s Sandwich in Westminster; and Anaheim-based feminist illustrator Sara Lyons.
COMING SOON
Re: Out of oFfice
Podcast
Re: Out of Office is a feminist cultural podcast hosted by 3 friends who all grew up in the 1990s and 2000s.
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WRITING
LATINA MAGAZINE
Article: The History of Mexico’s Agave Spirits
UC Irvine Center for Graduate Studies
Interview: “All Roads Lead To Serving The People”
The Graduate Journal of Food Studies
Academic critique: “Alimentary Asians: Bringing Asian American Studies to Bear on Food Studies”
In MEDIA RES
Academic critique: The Great British Bake-Off & Cooking Competition Shows: “Postcolonial Cozy”
EXEUNT MAgazine
Theatre review: “so go the ghosts of mexico, part one”
The Huffington Post
Blog post for Latino Voices:“‘Fat For An Asian,’ Flat For A Latina: How Not To Have A Perfect Body”
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FEATURED IN
Bustle
“6 Asian-Latinx Women On What They Wish You Knew About Their Identity” by Janel Martinez and Mia Mercado
Race Files
“When Asian Emasculation Meets Misogyny: On Eddie Huang’s Black Feminist Problem” by Mark Tseng Putterman
Reappropriate
“Digging into the Racial Politics of ‘Ugly Delicious’” by Rachel Kuo
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CONTACT ME
Say hello! Let’s work together. :)