Dr. Sharon Tran
With affiliations in the Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies department and the Asian Studies program, Tran brings a multidisciplinary lens to her scholarship that examines the intersections of race, gender, and U.S. empire.
Tran’s journey to academia was not predetermined. Entering college with plans to pursue law or science “in accordance with my parents’ wishes and their vision of what constitutes a successful future,” she found herself increasingly drawn to English courses that “fueled my intellectual curiosity and gave me the tools to think more critically about the world around me. This intellectual awakening led her to declare an English major, though she initially “continued to con my parents for a while, telling them that I would apply to law school after graduation,” she says.
The turning point in Tran’s academic journey came when she received the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, which provided crucial mentorship.
“The funding and mentorship support I received through that program were vital in helping me prepare application materials to apply for graduate school and figure out how to navigate and thrive in academia as a woman of color,” Tran explains. She went on to earn both her M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles, before completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Southern California.
Tran’s research agenda crystallized during her undergraduate studies at CUNY, Queens College, where she noticed a significant gap in the curriculum.
“Asian American literature was a huge gap in the curriculum,” Tran recalls. “In fact, I did not take my first Asian American literature course until my senior year when the department finally hired two new faculty members who specialized in that field.” This absence motivated her to focus on Asian American literature, where she “was energized by the diversity of Asian American narratives as well as the innovative ways these writers were intervening in and reinventing traditional literary forms and genres.”
For Tran, teaching Asian American literature fulfills a crucial representational role.
"For me, one of the most rewarding parts of being a professor is when a student tells me that a text I assigned really resonated with them and made them feel seen for the first time,” she says.
While encouraged by the growing mainstream attention to Asian American writers, Tran acknowledges there is “still a long way to go in terms of integrating Asian American literature into the curriculum but I am hopeful that the growing mainstream interest will expand and shift what gets taught in English classes.”
In 2021-2022, Tran received the prestigious Career Enhancement Fellowship from the Institute for Citizens & Scholars. The fellowship provided “the gift of time to make more progress on researching and writing my book as well as invaluable funding and mentorship support.” Working with mentor Dr. Laura Hyun Yi Kang, Tran was “able to refine my focus and identify ‘U.S. empire’ as a key organizing rubric for the project.”
This work has culminated in Tran’s forthcoming book, Asian Girlhood in the Shadows of U.S. Empire, which will be published by University of Minnesota Press in Spring 2026. Drawing on extensive historical research, the book traces how the figure of the ‘Asian girl’ exposes the gendered, racial boundaries and politics of childhood in the context of WWII Japanese American incarceration and the American wars in Korea and Vietnam.
In her book, Tran demonstrates how Asian American literature offers rich theoretical interventions for critiquing the child-adult dichotomy that structures core relations of imperial domination and for imagining girlhood otherwise. She notes that this project represents “the culmination of many years of research, which I began as a graduate student at UCLA, so I am very excited that my book will finally be coming out into the world!”
Beyond her research, Tran actively serves the academic community through her roles on the Modern Language Association Delegate Assembly and Age Studies forum executive committee. At UMBC, she teaches courses on race and ethnicity in U.S. literature, disability studies, and science and speculative fiction.
Throughout her career, Tran has consistently demonstrated commitment to what she describes as “fostering more institutional access and support for communities of color,” which she says “is what animates my research and teaching so it feels wonderful to receive recognition for this work.”
