Jin Haritaworn

A newcomer to Toronto with ancestries in Thailand, China, and Germany, I have written extensively as part of my day job as Associate Professor in Gender, Race and Environment at York University, including two books, several co/edited collections, and numerous essays and keynotes (Routledge, Pluto, Ashgate, Gays and Lesbians Quarterly, Sexualities, Society&Space, Topia), as well as a few shorter fiction and non-fiction pieces (Bully Bloggers, Chroma, Feroce, Make/Shift, and Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femme). Becoming a Diaspora Dialogues mentee will enable me to venture beyond an academic community of readers and writers, and to animate my interests in race, gender, space, diasporic identity, and queer of colour maps and archives anew in another genre. In addition to helping me develop my first collection of fiction, the program will equip me with skills that I can share with my communities. For example, I am PI of the Marvellous Grounds collective (with Alvis Choi, Ghaida Moussa, Rio Rodriguez, and Syrus Marcus Ware), whose aim to foster creative work coming out of Toronto communities has strong resonances with Diaspora Dialogues. This mapping and archiving project currently takes the shape of two forthcoming book collections and a blog featuring artistic and activist works by queer and trans Black, Indigenous and people of colour in Toronto.