Max Yang

Max Yang is a PhD student in Media Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. Their research sits at the intersection of queer theory, digital/popular culture and transnational media studies, with a focus on queer media and digital intimacies in contemporary China. They are interested in how queer life is mediated through language, platforms, and everyday cultural practices, particularly under conditions in which visibility is uneven or contingent. Their current work examines how coded language, informal archives, platform infrastructures, and even forms of lowbrow popular culture mediate queer intimacy and belonging under shifting conditions of censorship and algorithmic/platform governance. At the center of this research is a broader question of how political conditions become intimate. Their research is also concerned with what happens to “queer” as it moves across languages, histories, and political contexts. Max asks how queer life in China exceeds, revises, or resists translation into Euro-American frameworks of visibility, coming out, and recognition, and what might emerge when these frameworks are no longer taken as the starting point for thinking about queerness. 

 

Max received an M.A. in Cinema and Media Studies (SCA) and an M.S. in Arts Administration/Leadership (Thornton) from the University of Southern California, and a B.F.A. in Photography and Imaging from ArtCenter College of Design. Their M.A. capstone thesis received the George Lucas Family Award. Max has also presented research at various annual/graduate conferences. Outside of their academic work, Max enjoys spending time at home with their cats, cooking, hiking, and camping.