CV (PDF)
Robert Nguyen
430 Burrowes Building, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802
EDUCATION
PhD, English & Visual Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, 2023.
Dissertation: “Silicon Valley Stories: Repetitions, Recursions, and Infinite Loops.”
MA, English, The Pennsylvania State University, 2019
MA, English, Fordham University, 2006
BA, English, magna cum laude in corsu honorum, Fordham University, 2005
PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS
July 2024– , Assistant Professor
Department of English, Lycoming College
2023–2024, Post-Doctoral Teaching Fellow
Department of English, Pennsylvania State University
Publications
Refereed Journal Articles
2022, “Cybernetics and Ancillary Justice: Embodiment, Crisis, and Resistance.” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 33, no. 2 (December 2022): 10–32.
2022, “Middle-Out from Bottom-Up: Engineering and Close Reading Code in HBO’s Silicon Valley.” Configurations, vol. 30, no. 4, Fall 2022.
AWARDS AND HONORS
2023, College of the Liberal Arts Raymond E. Lombra and Roberta Lombra Outstanding Graduate Research Award, Penn State
2022, Henry Luce Foundation grant, Global Asias: Methods, Architecture, Praxis book series
2022, Ebbitt Rhetoric Fellowship, Penn State
2022, Graduate Student Scholar in Residence, The Humanities Institute, Penn State
2021, David G. Hartwell Emerging Scholar Award, International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts
2021, Milton B. Dolinger Graduate Fellowship in Writing Award, Penn State
2019, Kelly Graduate Fellow in Literature, Penn State
2019, Milton B. Dolinger Graduate Fellowship in Writing Award, Penn State
2018, Nominee, Teaching Excellence Award, Program in Writing and Rhetoric, Penn State
2005, Claire Hahn Becker Award, Fordham University
INVITED TALKS
2024, “Tech Giants on Screen: Power, Cinematography, and User Interfaces in Devs and The Circle.” Tucson Hard-Science SF Writers and Artists Group. Mar. 2.
2013, “Walking Merchandise: Child Trafficking and the Snakehead Trade Film Screening & Panel Discussion.” Fordham University, Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs. Jan. 30.
2013, “Walking Merchandise: A Film about Chinese Human Trafficking in the United States – Film Screening and Discussion.” LaSalle University, Diplomat-in-Residence Program. Feb. 21.
CONFERENCE Activity
Paper Presentations
2024, “Oriental, Inscrutable, Unknowable: Generative AIs, Jinns, and G. Willow Wilson’s Alif the Unseen,” Association for Asian American Studies, Seattle. April 25–27.
2024, “Zing!: Adaptation and Social Media in The Circle,” Modern Language Association, Philadelphia, Jan. 4–7.
2023, “‘Who are these people?’: The White American and the Exotic Asian Tech Factory,” Association for Asian American Studies, Long Beach. Apr. 6–9.
2023, “Silicon San Francisco: The Technology Industry and Urban Space in Alex Garland’s Devs,” Modern Language Association, San Francisco. Jan. 5–8.
2022, “New Internets and Infinite Loops: Ready Player One, Silicon Valley, and Infinite Detail,” Northeast Modern Language Association, Baltimore. Mar. 10–13.
2021, “Cybernetics and Ancillary Justice: Embodiment, Crisis, and Resistance,” International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Online. Mar. 18–21.
2020, “Silicon Valley Sexism: Founding Stories, Ideology, and Action,” Cultural Studies Association, Online. May 28–30.
2020, “Metaverse, OASIS, Web: The Imagined Internets of Snow Crash and Ready Player One,” The Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture since 1900, Louisville. Feb. 20–22.
2019, “iPhones, Labor, and Lies: Mike Daisey’s The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, Irvine. Nov. 7–9.
2019, “Don't Tell the Grown-Ups: Stranger Things and Nostalgic Returns to 1980s Aesthetics and Politics,” Cultural Studies Association, New Orleans.
May 30–Jun. 1.
2018, “The Tempest's Tempest: 400 Years of Hypermediation,” Literature/Film Association, New Orleans. Nov. 29–Dec. 1.
Roundtable
2022, “‘We need it to say hello’: Intermediality, Recursion, and the Macintosh in Steve Jobs,” Northeast Modern Language Association. Roundtable Presentation, Baltimore. Mar. 10–13.
Chair
2024, “On Dystopia and Severance,” Association for Asian American Studies, Seattle. April 25–27.
Departmental Roundtables (selected)
2022, Interpreting Student Evaluations Workshop. English Mentoring Program.
Apr. 20.
2021, “Things I wish I knew before teaching in person.” Program in Writing and Rhetoric, Rhetoric and Composition Instructor Tutorial. Apr. 29.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
University Park Residential Courses, Instructor of Record
Asian American Literatures (Spring 2024)
Business and Literature (Spring 2022)
Race, Ethnicity, and Magical Realism (Fall 2023)
First-Year Writing (Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2024)
First-Year Writing, linked with Mass Media and Society (Summer 2019)
Technical Writing (Spring 2019; Summer 2019; Fall 2023)
World Campus Asynchronous Online Courses, Instructor of Record
Rhetoric and Composition (Summer 2021)
Technical Writing (Summer 2020, Summer 2023 [x2])
Writing Center
Tutor, Rhetoric and Composition & Technical Writing (Fall 2019, Spring 2020)
Research Assistantships
2022–2023, Global Asias Initiative, Project Manager
2021–2022, Penn State Digital English Studio, Studio Assistant
2018–2022, Studies in American Jewish Literature, Managing Editor
2018–2021, Digital Culture and Media Initiative, Graduate Assistant, Advisory Board Member
SERVICE
2024, The Center for American Literary Studies Spring Symposium, “Field Work: Journal Editors on Shaping Intellectual Life in the Academy,” First Questioner. Mar. 18.
2022–2024, Channels: Asian Diasporas in Film, Art, and Media Initiative, Founding Co-Organizer
2022–2023, Asian American Reading Group, Co-Organizer
2023, Macmillan Bedford/St. Martin’s AI Journal project, Survey Participant
2023, Bloom by Plastic Labs, generative AI in education classroom pilot program
2023, The Center for American Literary Studies, “SERIAL, True Crime, and Podcasting’s ‘Golden Age,’” webinar with special guest Sarah Koenig, moderator. Jan. 20.
2022, Proposed Adobe education classroom pilot program in digital multiliteracies
2020–2022, English Department Mentoring Program, Mentoring Group Coordinator
2018–2020, English Department Mentoring Program, Mentor
2019, Program in Writing and Rhetoric, Grade Appeal Reader
2018–2019, The Center for American Literary Studies Spring Symposium, “Corruption,” Organizing Committee Member.
Creative Projects
2009–2012, “Walking Merchandise: Child Trafficking and the Snakehead Trade” documentary short film. Producer. Film funded in part by the Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity (Columbia University, Earth Institute). Official Selection: Rhode Island International Film Festival.
LANGUAGES
French, intermediate