Dr Hairong Chen

Dr Hairong Chen is Associate Professor of Literature at Hangzhou Normal University in China. She received her PhD in Foreign Literature from Zhejiang University. She also served as a Visiting Scholar at California State University, Los Angeles between November 2017 and May 2018 and then at Emory University until June 2018. Her research interests include literature and material culture, literature and architecture, and gender studies. She has published many articles related to space, food, architecture and masculinity.

Hairong Chen is currently working on many projects, including Urban Memories: Architecture Narratives in American Literature, funded by Zhejiang Provincial Philosophy and Social Science Planning Project, and Material Culture in Raymond Andrews’ Works funded by Hangzhou Normal University. She is developing a project on African American Quilts and Literature, which aims to investigate how African American quilts shape African American literature. The project will consist of research on the history of African American quilts from slavery to the modern era and an analysis of how quilts become a collective memory for African Americans and constitute a charged image in African American literature; how the cultural and social activities related to quilts, such as quilting bees, shape kinship relations and are written into literary works concerning themes of womanhood, motherhood, and sisterhood; and on the pattern of quilts in relation to the form of literary works and the creativity and autonomy of African American women.