Overview
Jessie Taieun Yoon (they/them) is a non-binary East Asian femme who ponders upon all things feminine and feminized. They are a PhD candidate in Performing and Media Arts at Cornell University. Jessie has been called a passionate teacher, detailed translator, queer activist, and a cultural critic. In Fall 2025, they are a visiting scholar in the division of Gender Studies at Lund University, Sweden.
Yoon researches performative construction of Asianness as queerly feminine, inquiring into Asia as transnational racial geography and its cultural, sexual, queer, trans, and feminist politics. Their dissertation “Pretense: Performing Asia as Queerly Feminine in Transnational Artworlds” delves into contemporary performances, exhibitions, and media of various genres that incorporate distinctly Asian aesthetics in its bliss and biases.
Broadly, they are interested in the intersection between aesthetics and politics of racialized sexuality as manifested through artworks, sensibilities, and cultural phenomena. They have taught and love to teach feminism, gender, and sexuality studies; queer and trans of color theory; performance, media, film, and cultural studies. At Cornell, they hold a graduate minor in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Asian American Studies.
Their trajectory has been deeply transnational, spanning across Malmö, London, Seoul, and Ithaca, New York. They completed their Master's of Science degree in Gender, Media, and Culture at LSE (London School of Economics and Political Science) with Distinction. They graduated Summa cum Laude for their Bachelor's in Aesthetics from Seoul National University, having minored Sociology.
Yoon’s scholarly work has been published or forthcoming in Theatre Journal and Feral Feminisms. In 2024, they were selected as a runner-up winner for the Biddy Martin Graduate Prize for the Best Essay in LGBT Studies. They have presented their research in various conferences including those of Society for Cinema and Media Studies, International Trans Studies, Association for Asian American Studies, Sexuality Studies Association at Canadian Congress for the Humanities, and many more. For more detailed information on their recent works, please visit [jessieyoon.com].