Karen Buenavista Hanna

Karen Buenavista Hanna earned her Ph.D. in Feminist Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2018. An interdisciplinary queer feminist scholar specializing in transnational social movements, Hanna is interested in questions of movement building, decolonial praxis, and how we hold ourselves and each other accountable for harm without re-inscribing oppression in the work that we do for societal change. Greatly inspired by the writing of women of color feminists, Hanna’s personally grounded narratives illuminate the intersections of hetero-patriarchal racial capitalism, disability, migration, spirituality and the family in their emphasis of resistance, survival and connection.

Prior to her doctoral studies, from 2003 to 2011, Hanna was a New York City public school teacher, pre-GED instructor with the Brooklyn Public Library, and community organizer working alongside Filipina/o/x immigrant youth and domestic workers. These experiences inform her approaches to research and pedagogy. That is, she encourages students to interrogate how they study history and theory and re-imagine the classroom and writing as sites to enact dreams for liberation and healing. At Connecticut College, Hanna teaches courses including "Introduction to Gender, Sexuality and Intersectionality Studies," "Queer Theory and Activism," "Sex, Gender and Revolution," "Contemporary Feminist Thought," and "Social Movement Praxis." She has previously taught courses on student movements, queer migrant critiques of U.S. empire, women of color feminisms, and gender, culture and society. Fiercely devoted to building queer- and trans-inclusive self-actualized spaces of healing and solidarity for womxn and femmes of color, she founded Brown University's first women of color student organization, the Women of Color Writing Circle, in 2002, and co-founded UC Santa Barbara’s Women of Color Circle in 2012.

Hanna is currently working on her first book manuscript entitled, Revolutionary Intimacies: The Makings of a New Filipina/o Left in the United States, which is under contract with Duke University Press. This book offers a queer diasporic reading of a new Filipina/o anti-imperialist left formed in the United States during and after the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines and activists' changing application of political ideas across time and space. She is also working with Dr. Gina Velasco to co-edit Beyond the X: Queer and Trans Filipinx Radical Possibilities, a collection of essays and poems by emerging writers, under contract with University of Washington Press. Her writing has been published in numerous academic journals, anthologies and popular media, including Alon: Journal for Filipinx American and Diaporic Studies, Amerasia, American Quarterly, Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, CUNY Forum, Hyphen Magazine, and The Pilipinx Radical Imagination Reader. Before her position at Connecticut College, Hanna was an Ann Plato Postdoctoral Fellow in American Studies at Trinity College. She has been awarded fellowships from the Mellon Foundation, American Council of Learned Sciences, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, Sociologists for Women in Society, and the American Association for University Women.

Peer-Reviewed Articles

“Unraveling the Knot,” in “Martial Law Now, as Then,” Co-authored with C. Balance, J. Capino, G. Clutario, G. Devilles, J. Diaz, R. Diaz, F. Lopez, M. Manalansan IV, A. Isaac, M. Sanchez, and N. Tadiar, Social Text, December 2021.

“Radical House/work: Revolutionary Intimacies in the US Anti-Marcos Movement,” Invited submission for special Martial Law issue of ALON: A Journal for Filipinx American and Diaspora Studies, November 2021.

“In Defense of the X: Centering Queer, Trans, and Non-Binary Pilipina/x/os, Queer Vernacular, and the Politics of Naming,” Co-authored with Kay Ulanday Barrett and Anang Palomar, Invited submission for ALON: A Journal for Filipinx American and Diaspora Studies 1.2 (2021).

“When Mothers Lead: Revolutionary Adaptability in a Filipina/o American Diasporic Community Theater Organization,” Amerasia Special Issue on Asian American and Pacific Islander Activism. November 2019, pp. 188-206. *Winner of Best Article by an Early Career Scholar in the Social Sciences/American & Ethnic Studies, Filipino Studies Section of the Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS).

“Pedagogies in the Flesh: Building an Anti-Racist Decolonized Classroom,” Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies 40.1 (2019): 229-244.

“Being Gay in the KDP: Politics in a Filipina/o American Revolutionary Organization From 1973 to 1986,” CUNY Forum 6.1 (2018-19): 32-47.

“A Call for Healing: Transphobia, Homophobia, and Historical Trauma in Filipina/o/x Activist Organizations,” Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy 32.3 (Summer 2017): 696-714.

Book Reviews

Review of Gendering the Transpacific World, eds. Catherine Ceniza Choy and Judy Tzu-Chun Wu. For Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000, ed. Katherine Marino, Alexander Street Press, 23.2, September 2019.

“Cultures of Empire and International Solidarity,” Co-authored with Mark John Sanchez. Review of A Time to Rise: Collective Memoirs of the Union of Democratic Filipinos, eds. Rene Ciria Cruz, Bruce Occena, and Cindy Domingo. Women Against Marcos: Stories of Filipino and Filipino American Women Who Fought a Dictator, ed. Mila DeGuzman; Tibak Rising: Activism in the Days of Martial Law, ed. Ferdinand C. Llanes; Seams of Empire: Race and Radicalism in Puerto Rico and the United States by Carlos Alamo-Pastrana; A Shadow over Palestine: The Imperial Life of Race in America by Keith Feldman. American Quarterly 71.1 (March 2019), 219-231.

Invited Book Chapters

“Political Familism and New Movement Families: Thinking About Filipina/o Anti-Imperialist Organizations in New York City,” Tinipong Tinig ng Kababaihan: Priestesses to Presidents, Nenita Pambid Domingo and Brandon Reilly, eds. University of the Philippines Press. 2023.

“Dissident Friendship: Delia Aguilar and the Development of Filipino Nationalist Feminist Thought,” Revolutionary Internationalist Women: Lives and Afterlives, Marral Shamshiri-Fard and Sorcha Thomson eds. Pluto Press. 2023.

“In Defense of the X: Centering Queer, Trans, and Non-Binary Pilipina/x/os, Queer Vernacular, and the Politics of Naming,” Co-authored with Kay Ulanday Barrett and Anang Palomar in Amanda Solomon Amorao and DJ Kuttin Kandi, eds. Closer to Liberation: Pin[a/x]y Activism in Theory and Practice. REPRINT of article in ALON. 2023.

“’Centerwomen’ and the ‘Fourth Shift’: Hidden Figures in Transnational Filipino Activism in Los Angeles, 1972-1992,”Filipino American Transnational Activism: Diasporic Politics Among the Second Generation, Robyn Rodriguez, ed. Brill. 2019.

“The Delano Grape Strike and Boycott, 1965-1970,” with Maharaj Desai and Teresa Hodges. 25 Events That Shaped Asian American History: An Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic, Lan Dong, ed. ABC-CLIO. 2019.

Other Book Chapters

“Introduction: Beyond the X,” with Gina Velasco in K. Hanna and G. Velasco, eds. Beyond the X: Queer and Trans Filipinx Radical Possibilities. University of Washington Press. Forthcoming.

“Coming into Kapwa While Organizing Against Imperialism: Queer Pilipinx Practices in New York City,” with Ana Liza Caballes, Cecilia Lim, and Leah Obias in Beyond the X: Queer and Trans Filipinx Studies. University of Washington Press. Forthcoming.

“Strategizing Beyond Survival: Living with Chronic Illness as a Woman of Color PhD Student,” Not White/Straight/Male/Healthy Enough: Being “Other” in the Academy, Kathryn Quinn-Sanchez, Michael Moreno, Michele Shaul, eds. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 2018. REPRINT of article in Hyphen Magazine, 29 (Fall 2015): 21-24.

“Breaking Bones with My Mother,” with Marlo Buenavista Hanna. Pilipinx Radical Imagination Reader, Melissa-Ann Nievera-Lozano and Tony Santa Ana, eds. Pawa, Inc. 2018.

Encyclopedia Entries

“Subgroups, Filipino American,” The SAGE Encyclopedia of Filipina/o/x American Studies, eds. K. Nadal, A. Tintiangco-Cubales, and E.J.R. David. Sage Publications, 2022.

“Filipina/x/o Americans with Disabilities,” Co-written with Rosa Milagros Santos in The SAGE Encyclopedia of Filipina/o/x American Studies, eds. K. Nadal, A. Tintiangco-Cubales, and E.J.R. David. Sage Publications, 2022.

“Community and Grassroots Activism,” Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies, Nancy Naples, ed. 2016.

Other Publications

“Attentiveness to Exceptional Bodies,” Online Symposium Discussion of Brilliant Imperfection by Eli Clare, Syndicate Network, March 2019, https://syndicate.network/symposia/literature/brilliant-imperfection/

“Living Beyond Survival: 11 Tips for Women of Color in Academia,” Hyphen Magazine, 29 (Fall 2015): 21-24.