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Alien Forms and Minor Genres

A Speculative Handbook of Academic Labor

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Book

Pages: 286

Illustrations: 43 illustrations

Release Date: October 27, 2026

Author: Tina Chen

Alien Forms and Minor Genres speculates about how and why academia cultivates, manages, and rewards academic labor. Examining these issues within the context of the multidisciplinary field of Global Asias, Tina Chen tracks the diverse trajectories of research creation to delineate capaciously-imagined forms of scholarly labor and demonstrate their constructed value. She uses an experimental structure, setting examples of intellectual work in academia such as the book proposal, the lesson plan, and the syllabi against more in-depth genre criticism of research and service activities. By giving readers a look behind the curtain at these routine parts of academia and exploring the potential for alternative genres in intellectual inquiry, Chen reconceptualizes the nature, function, and praxis of scholarly work, showing how processes of academic labor are critical to creating and advancing scholarly knowledge.

Praise

“Alien Forms and Minor Genres represents Tina Chen at her best: capacious in scope, critically incisive, wondrously imaginative. There is sly humor here combined with dead seriousness. The book, like Chen, is a workhorse of endeavors and inspiration—less a how-to, more a why-to, and always with an eye upon the meta-frames that animate the passionate radicalism of Global Asias.” - Christine R. Yano, Professor Emerita of Anthropology, University of Hawai`i

“Undiscipline—I’ve been sitting with this word since finishing Alien Forms and Minor Genres, struck by Tina Chen’s bold approach to make transparent the various ways we have been disciplined into academia. Chen’s work is one you will want to not only re-read but pass on to others because you will want to talk through the innovative approaches to seeing what you can’t unsee in her deft reformulation of academic labor.” - Jennifer Ho, Professor of Ethnic Studies, University of Colorado Boulder

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Author/Editor Bios Table Of Contents Rights Additional Information

Author/Editor Bios

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Tina Chen is Associate Professor of English and Asian American Studies and Director of the Global Asias Initiative at The Pennsylvania State University. She is the author of Double Agency: Acts of Impersonation in Asian American Literature and Culture and founding editor of Verge: Studies in Global Asias.

Table Of Contents

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Acknowledgments ix
I. Unlikely Propositions: A Trio of Introductions
Introduction 1. Book Proposal  3
Introduction 2. A (Speculative) Faculty Activity Report   18
Introduction 3. Lesson Plans  44
II. Minor Genres and the Shadow Archive
Free Agents?: Statement of Purpose  67
Minor Genres of Academic Writing and the Shadow Archive: PowerPoint Presentation  70
Working As/Through Alien Form: An Annotated Bibliography  84
Global Asias: Method, Architecture, Praxis. An Annotated Essay 127
What If, If Only, and If This Goes On: Reimagining Scholarly Activity Through Global Asias Practice. Statement of Endeavors  151
III. Alien Abduction, Alien Form
Alien Abduction, Alien Form. Conference Paper 159
Syllabus 1. AlieNation: Asian American Literatures  165
Syllabus 2. Speculative Fictions: Worldbreaking, Worldtaking, Worldmaking  169
Syllabus 3. Cnotemporary Ethnic American Literatures: Reading Beyond Race  177
Alien Abduction, Alien Form: Research Essay  186
Coda. Editorial Dossier 211
Appendix  245
References  253
Index

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Sales/Territorial Rights: World

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Additional Information

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Paper ISBN: 978-1-4780-3923-5 / Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4780-3419-3 / eISBN: 978-1-4780-6277-6 /