Chingyen Y. Mayer

Chingyen Mayer joined the faculty of the English Department at Siena College in 2002. She received her Ph.D. in Literature and Criticism from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She has taught a variety of courses in 20th literature, African American literature, Harlem Renaissance, Realistic movement in American Literature, Postcolonial literature, Multicultural literature, and International studies. She supervises student-teachers in the English Education program, and serves as the English Department’s liaison to the Education Department. Her publications and research interests are primarily on issues of home and exile, masculinity and femininity, resistance and conformity in Asian American and global literature.

My Siena Experience

My Teaching Philosophy

My classroom is a forum where intellectual ideas are exchanged and debated, an arena where I share my passion and enthusiasm for the courses with my students, and a medium for me to help my students become active and participating learners.

What I Love About Siena

The sense of community, friendly colleagues, and super students.

My Favorite Courses to Teach

Asian American literature
Postcolonial literature
Realistic movement in American literature

My Professional Experience

Articles & Book Reviews

• Entangled allegiances and multiple belongings in Shirley Geok-Lin Lim's Among the White Moon Faces: An Asian American Memoir of Homelands.
  Asiatic: ILL Journal of English Language and Literature
  2015
• Introduction to Narratives of Unstable Homes in Asian American Literature, a Special Issue of Asiatic: ILL Journal of English Language and Literature
  Asiatic: ILL Journal of English Language and Literature
  2015
• National and gender negotiations in Lights and Shadows of a Macau Life: The Journal of Harriett Low, a Travelling Spinster
  Asian Conference on Cultural Studies 2015 Conference Volume
  2015
• National and gender negotiations in Lights and shadows of a Macao life: The journal of Harriett Low, a travelling spinster
  Asian conference on cultural studies
  2015
• Book review of Ha Jin's A Map of Betrayal: A Novel
  Asiatic: ILL Journal of English Language and Literature
  2014
• Longing and belongling: Exile and home in Shirley Lim's Joss and Gold
  Asiatic: ILL Journal of English Language and Literature
  2014
• Review of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See
  MultiCultural Review
  2005
• Review of Tell this Silence: Asian American Women Writers and the Politics of Speech, by Patti Duncan
  MultiCultural Review
  2004
• Review of Voices of Healing: Spirit and Unity after 9/11 in the Asian American and Pacific Islander Community, by Icy Smith
  MultiCultural Review
  2004
• Displacement and Nostalgia: Immigration, adaptation and nativism Overseas
  Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities, University of Hawaii
  January, 2003
• Review of Bombay-London-New York, by Amitava Kumar
  MultiCultural Review
  2003
• Review of South Asian Novelists in English: An A to Z Guide, by Jaina C. Sanga
  MultiCultural Review
  2003
• The dark side of paradise:Languages, memories, and stories as forms of resistance to colonization
  Hawaii International conference on Arts and Humanities
  2003

Books & Book Chapters

• IIm)Migration Patterns:Displacement and RElocation in Contemporary America
  Editura Institutul European Iasi
  2015
• Special issue of Asiatic: ILL Journal of English Language and Literature Narratives of Unstable Homes in Asian American Literature
  
  2015

Presentations

• National and gender negotiations in Lights and Shadows of a Macao Life: The Journal of Harriett Low, a travelling spinster
  2015
  5th Asian Conference on Cultural Studies, Kobe, Japan
• What is lost in Hualing Nieh's The Lost Golden Bell and The Valley of Dreams.
  2015
  American Literature Forum jointly sponsored by Hunan College of Commence and Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China-PRC
• Once a Chinese Person, die a Chinese ghost: Displacement and nostalgia in Hualing Nieh's Mulberry and Peach
  2014
  2014 Romanian Association of American Studies Fulbright Conference, Constanta, Romania
• Speaking of the unspeakable: Mo Yan
  2013
  Invited presentation at Siena College Economics Department's second annual Nobel Prize Panel, Loudonville, New York
• The journey home in Hualing Nieh's The Lost Golden Bell and Mulberry and Peach
  2013
  Invited keynote speech at Hunan College of Commerce, Changsha, China
• Under Western eyes: Harriett Low's travel writing and diasporic spaces.
  2013
  International conference on Narratives on Macau, Lisbon, Portugal
• An intellectual debate on what is Asian America literature
  2012
  Invited keynote speech at New York Public Library, Flushing, New York
• Pedagogical approaches to teaching Asian American literature in suburban America
  2012
  Invited keynote speech at Hunan College of Commerce, Changsha, China-PRC
• The Chna knot in the works of Eileen Chang and Hualing Nieh
  2012
  Invited keynote speech at Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China-PRC
• The restless chameleon in Bharati Mukherjee's Jasmine
  2011
  25th MELUS and USACLALS Joint conference, Boca Raton, Florida
• Home-the hybrid Third Space where our stories are told
  2010
  24th Multiethnic Literature of the United States Annual Conference, Scranton, Pennsylvania
• Schizophrenia as a refuge in Hualing Nieh's Mulberry and Peach
  2010
  Northeast Popular Culture Association Conference, Boston, Massachusetts
• Cultural misreadings and close readings of Maxine Hong Kingston's Woman Warrior
  2009
  New York College English Association Conference, Saint Bonaventure, New York
• From American Knees to 'Americanese:' Is the movie better than the book?
  2009
  New York College English Association Conference, New York, New York
• Truth or fiction: Risky invention of historical legends in Woman Warrioi
  2009
  New York College English Association Conference, Buffalo, New York
• Decolonizing the mind: Meandering through the maze of multiple identities in Kathleen Tyau's A Little Too Much is Enough
  2007
  21st Multiethnic Literature of the United States Annual Conference, Fresno, California
• The Bakhtinian carnival figure and gender politics in Ginu Kamani's 'The smell'
  2006
  New York College English Association Conference, Utica, New York
• To stay or to return: Displaced identities in Hualing Nie's Mulberry and Peach: Two Women of China and Shirley Lim's Among the White Moon Faces: An Asian American Memoir
  2006
  Phi Tau Phi Eastern-American Chapter Meeting, New York, New York
• What's that smell? Resistance and conformity to gender politics in Ginu Kamani's The smell
  2006
  20th Multiethnic Literature of the United States, Boca Raton, Florida
• Jewish American identities and gender negotiations in Philip Roth's The Plot Against America
  2005
  Popular Books, Siena College, Loudonville, New York
• Mapping out a Female Voice in Philip Roth's The Plot against America'
  2005
  New York College English Association Conference, Loudonville, New York
• Sexual virility and masculine Power: conformity and resistance to hegemonic masculinities in Shawn Wong's American Kneep
  2005
  Modern Language Association Annual Conference, Washington, District of Columbia
• Telling the stories of the invisible: The collapse of the 'model minority' myth in Ng's Bone
  2005
  19th Multiethnic Literatures of the United States, Chicago, Illinois
• Displaced gender identities: Shirley Geok-Lim's Among the Moon Faces: An Asian-American Memoir of Homelands
  2004
  Women's Research Group, Loudonville, New York
• Media and literary representations of Asian Americans: The immoral and effeminate Chinese American men in Big Trouble, Little China
  2004
  New York College English Association College English, Albany, New York
• Negotiating exiled identities: Shirley Geok-Lim's Among the White Moon Faces: An Asian-American Memoir of Homelands
  2004
  10th International American Women Writers of Color Conference, Baltimore, Maryland
• The Woman Warrior: Transgressing gender and genre boundaries
  2004
  18th Multiethnic Literatures of the United States Annual Conference, San Antonio, Texas
• Displacement and Nostalgia: Immigration, adaptation and nativism overseas
  January, 2003
  Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities, University of Hawaii, West Oahu, Hawaii
• Reviving the Chinese American male heroic tradition: Frank Chin's Donald Duck
  2003
  Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association Annual Conference, Wilmington, Delaware
• The conflicting selves in selected Chinese American literary works
  2003
  Central New York Conference on Language and Literature, Cortland, New York
• The dark side of paradise:Languages, memories, and stories as forms of resistance to colonization
  2003
  Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities, University of Hawaii, West Oahu, Hawaii
• Writing as fighting: Maxine Hong Kingston's search for identity in Woman Warrior: A Girlhood Among Ghosts
  2002
  Mid-Atlantic American/Popular Culture Association Annual Conference, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania