Dr. Victor Mendoza

Biography

Victor Román Mendoza holds joint appointments in Women's Gender Studies, English, and the Department of American Culture at the University of Michigan. He is also the acting director of the Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies Program and a faculty associate of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies. His book, Metroimperial Intimacies: Fantasy, Racial-Sexual Governance, Philippines U.S. Imperialism, 1899-1913, published by Duke University Press in 2015, examines the governance of Philippine sexuality as integral to the imperial-colonial conquest and colonization of the Philippines. This work was a finalist for the 2017 Philippines National Book Award in the History category. Mendoza's current book project, Extimate Attachments: Colonianormativity, Racial Minorities, Promise of Imperial Citizenship, traces the lives of racialized subjects in U.S. metropolitan centers at the turn of the twentieth century. He has co-edited Asian American Literature in Transition, Vol. 4, which won the Choice 'Outstanding Academic Title' award in 2022. Mendoza's research interests include the legacies and histories of contemporary postcolonial sites, particularly in relation to LGBTQ activist discourses. He is involved in analyzing laws, military documents, and activist discourse, especially within the context of the Global South and its interactions with Western-based LGBTQ activism.

Research Interests