Affiliate Associate Professor

STACILEE FORD

BA Brigham Young; EdM Harvard; EdD Columbia; PhD HKU

Office: 10.51, Run Run Shaw Tower
sford@hku.hk

Dr. Ford studies the connections between micro (individual) and macro (national/transnational/global) histories. Building on her research on Hong Kong-U.S. connections and transformations in U.S. American and “Americanized” women’s lives, she is currently finishing a book on manhood, leadership, and Transpacific cultural production in the late 20th/early 21st centuries. Selected Asian and Asian American/Asian Diasporic narratives constitute a diverse archive revealing men’s multifarious and globally recognized performances of leadership in cinema, memoir, television, Internet pedagogy, and popular literature. Intersectional, transnational, and feminist frameworks, as well as scholarship on the deep and diverse histories of gender and manhood in Asia and Asian America illuminate men’s often contradictory desires to re-envision as well as reify conventional notions of leadership, power, and influence.

RESEARCH

Research Interests

  • 20th and 21st Century Cultural History
  • Women’s, Gender, and Feminist History
  • Transpacific Popular Culture
  • Hong Kong Cinema
  • Gender, Generation, and Leadership

PUBLICATIONS

Hit the Road, Jack: Essays on the Culture of the American Road
[Co-edited with Gordon E. Slethaug]

Engaging with varied cultural mediums such as literature, reality television, philosophy, and political rhetoric, this collection delves deeply into the symbolic implications of the road. Insightful and accessible essays draw upon both classic “road” texts and films, while investigating themes of individual and national freedom, independence and mobility, and destiny. Referencing postmodern theory, gender and queer studies, as well as personal reminiscence and narrative research, Hit the Road, Jack considers the impact that identity – particularly race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation – has on the way various journeys are taken.

While literary depictions of the road have a long history, scholarship about the phenomenon is sparse. This anthology makes a significant contribution to the study of the road, bringing to light aspects of its iconic status in American culture.

Troubling American Women: Narratives of Gender and Nation in Hong Kong

“Stacilee Ford’s idea of gendered American exceptionalism is astute, provocative, and convincing. An American woman who has lived for years in Hong Kong, she possesses the rare sensibility to be at once critical and compassionate, as is evident throughout the book.” 

– King-Kok Cheung, professor of English and Asian American studies, University of California, Los Angeles

Mabel Cheung Yuen-Ting’s An Autumn’s Tale

“Stacilee Ford has written a fresh and astute work of interdisciplinary scholarship that situates An Autumn’s Tale within a number of social, cultural, historical, and industrial contexts. Ford’s great insight is to read the film through the critical lens of transnational American Studies. This is an original and important work that should be read by students of American Studies, immigrant and diasporic studies, Asian American Studies, and Asian cinema studies.” 

– Christina Klein, Associate Professor of English, Boston College

Full list of publications

TEACHING AND COURSES TAUGHT

  • HIST2015 The United States Before 1900
  • HIST2016 The United States Since 1900
  • HIST2031 History through Film
  • HIST2069 The History of American Popular Culture
  • HIST2070 Stories of Self: History Through Autobiography
  • HIST2077 Eating History: Food Culture from the 19th Century to the Present
  • HIST7019 Cinema and Hong Kong History (MA)
  • GEND2003 Gender, Generation, and Leadership

LATEST PUBLICATION

Hit the Road, Jack: Essays on the Culture of the American Road

McGill-Queen’s University Press

Publication Date:
10.2012 (paperback)