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Song Huang

Doctoral Student
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My research focuses on Asian Francophone literature, dance and performance studies, semiotics, and postcolonial theory. I am especially interested in how literary and choreographic forms from Asia engage with global aesthetic systems to produce polysemic meaning. My dissertation, Reading Between Systems: Polysemic Signs and Plurilingual Meaning in Text and Performance, examines how Asian Francophone texts and Chinese ballets challenge monolingual and monocultural models of expression by layering signs across linguistic and bodily registers. Drawing from theories of double indexation, kinesemiotics, and dynamic inheritance, I explore how texts and performances speak across cultural boundaries. Beyond my dissertation, I work on topics including gender and queerness in K-pop, time-travel fiction (chuānyuè), minor transnationalism, and the politics of literary voice in postcolonial contexts.

Education

University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
PhD in French Language and Literature (2024– )
Dissertation: Reading Between Systems: Polysemic Signs and Plurilingual Meaning in Text and Performance
Advisor: Maya Boutaghou

Sorbonne University, Paris, France
MA in Comparative Literature (2019–2021)

Sorbonne University, Paris, France
BA in Applied Literature (2016–2019)

Publications

  • Choreographing Commodification: Hybrid Gender and Body Performance in G-Dragons MAMA Awards Performances.Iconic Attitudes: Performances of Male Bands and Singers in the Modern Era, European Drama and Performance Studies, Classiques Garnier (forthcoming).
  • Beyond Exoticism: Alonzo Kings Scheherazade, Angelin Preljocajs The Nights, and the Transformation of Orientalist Ballet.” Dance Chronicle, Taylor & Francis (under review).
  • The Absent Body: Reinventing the Bildungsroman and Structural Misogyny in Gaspard Koenigs Humus.” French Forum, University of Pennsylvania Press (under review).

Selected Conferences

Performance Studies international (PSi) #30 Conference, Fortaleza, Brazil
December 2025
Curated Panel: Crossing and Maintaining Borders: Negotiating Hybridized Time, Space and Identity in Chinese Intermedia Dance
Paper: Dancing Between Worlds: Hybrid Choreographies and Cultural Inheritance in Huang Xiaos Intermedia Street Dance

Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association (PAMLA) 122nd Annual Conference, California, USA
November 2025
Panel: Asian American Literary & Cultural Studies
Paper: Diasporic Joy and Code-Switching: The Polyphonic Humor of Simu Liu and Jimmy O. Yang

Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association (RMMLA) 78th Annual Convention, Washington, USA
October 2025
Panel: Asian Comparative Literature and Film
Session: Traveling Texts II: Asian-Comparative Encounters
Paper: Signs in Tension: Toward an Imaginary Chaos-Monde in Dai Sijies Balzac and the Little Seamstress
Chair, Session: Reimagining Sinophone Worlds

International Comparative Literature Association (ICLA) XXIV Congress, Seoul, Korea
July 2025
Panel: Body, Representation, and Narrative: Cross-Cultural Encounters Between East and West in Globalized Literature
Paper: The Eroticized Chinese Body in Intercultural Works: Articulating Dichotomy and Hybridization in Shan Sas Les Conspirateurs and Preljocajs The Fresco
ECARE/NEXT GEN Individual Submission
Paper: From Jinjiang to the Global Stage: Reimagining Chuānyuè (Time Travel) as a Bridge Between Cultures, Genres, and Times

Dance Studies Association (DSA) Conference, Washington, DC, USA
June 2025
Hub: Activating Asian & Asian Diaspora Dance Futures
Paper: Reimagining Heritage: Hybrid Aesthetics and Cultural Disruption in 敦煌 (Dunhuang) and 过年 (The Nutcracker: Chinese Version) by the National Ballet of China

University of Pennsylvania Graduate Conference: Reimagining Collage”, Pennsylvania, USA
April 2025
Paper: Fragmentation and Fusion in Angelin Preljocajs The Nights and La Fresque: Collage as a Choreographic Strategy in Neo-Orientalist Ballet

Brown University Equinoxes Graduate Conference: Up Next / Au Suivant”, Providence, USA
April 2025
Paper: Entre fascination et contestation : tensions culturelles et dynamiques plurielles dans la littérature asiatique dexpression française

Harvard French Graduate Conference: The Institution”, Cambridge, USA
April 2025
Paper: Le Ballet du Pouvoir: The Paris Opera Ballets Enduring Supremacy in a Globalized World

Columbia University Graduate Conference: (Ré)conciliation?”, New York, USA
January 2025
Paper: Réconciliation au Féminin : La Queerness comme Force de Résilience dans La Joueuse de Go et Le Détachement féminin rouge (Feminine Reconciliation: Queerness as a Force of Resilience in The Girl Who Played Go and The Red Detachment of Women*)*

Department and University Service

Community Engagement Representative of the French Department                      2025-2026

Nominated and elected by peers