Education

• Ph.D., Performance Studies with a Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender, and Sexuality, University of California, Berkeley, 2020
• M.A., Performance Studies, New York University, 2013 

• B.A., Psychology, Stanford University, 2010 

About

Dr. Natalia Duong is Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies and Science and Technology Studies at the University of California, Davis. 

Her current book project, Chemical Diasporas, examines the spread of the herbicide Agent Orange through a study of cultural media, disability law, and community-engaged research in Vietnam. The book reframes the study of toxicity by arguing that the spread of toxins create networks of harm alongside infrastructures of kinship. 

In addition to her scholarly writing, Dr. Duong makes performances as a dramaturg, director, and choreographer focusing in particular on new plays written by and about folks in the Asian diaspora. 

Research

Dr. Duong's research interests include environmental toxicity, transnational Asian American studies, disability studies, human-nonhuman relations, and performance and sense-making.

Publications

• “Homing Toxicity: The Domestication of Herbicidal Warfare.” Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience 9, no. 1 (April 5, 2023). https://doi.org/10.28968/cftt.v9i1.38357.
• “Rhizophora: Queering Chemical Kinship in the Agent Orange Diaspora,” in Crip Genealogies, edited by Mel Y. Chen, Alison Kafer, Eunjung Kim, and Julie Minich. Duke University Press, 2023.
• “An Elephant’s Exquisite Corpse: Spectral Matters in Lynn Nottage’s Mlima’s Tale.” With Rishika Mehrishi and Joshua Williams. Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism 36, no. 1 (2021): 117-136.
• “Agent Orange Bodies: Việt, Đức, and Transnational Narratives of Repair.” Canadian Review of American Studies 48, no. 3 (2018): 387-414.

Teaching

• ASA 004: Asian American Cultural Studies
• ASA 189: Disability Studies
• STS 140: Science and Race

Awards

• Center for the Advancement of Multicultural Perspectives on Social Science, Arts, and Humanities (CAMPSSAH) Faculty Scholar, 2024
• University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA, 2022-2024
• Dunbar Ogden Prize in Theater History, 2020
• Phi Beta Kappa, Graduate Fellowship, 2019
• Selma Jeanne Cohen Award, Dance Studies Association, 2018