MWW 2026 Keynote Speaker
Dr. Shui-yin Sharon Yam 

Shui-yin Sharon Yam is Professor of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies, Affiliated Faculty of Gender and Women's Studies, and Director of the Committee and Graduate Certificate on Social Theory at the University of Kentucky. She is the author of two monographs: Inconvenient Strangers: Transnational Politics of Citizenship, winner of the 2020 CCCC Outstanding Book Award, and Doing Gender Justice: Queering Reproduction, Kin, and Care (co-authored with Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz). She was the recipient of the RSA Fellows' Early Career Award and the Organization for Feminist Research on Gender and Communication's Feminist Scholar of the Year Award. In addition to her academic work, her public scholarship has been published in outlets such as Foreign Policy, The Diplomat, and The New York Times. ​You can read more about Dr. Yam and her work on her webpage: sharonyam.com.

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Her keynote address, titled "Theorizing the Alien: Rhetorical Inventions from Abjection and Liminality," will be delivered on Saturday, February 7th at 11:30 AM in the IMU Frangipani Room. A catered lunch will immediately follow.