Alana J. Bock is a Doctoral candidate in the American Studies department at the University of New Mexico (UNM). She holds an M.A. in American Studies from UNM and a B.A. as a double major in U.S. History and Art History/Theory from the University of California, San Diego. Alana is also in the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies certificate program at UNM and is a Glenda Lewis Critical Race Scholar. Her dissertation project looks at the ways US empire has produced a certain aesthetics and sensorium through which we come to know the Filipinx body, and which continues to haunt Filipinx America . More specifically, their work explores cultural products such as film, television, punk music, and art by and/or about Filipinx Americans to discern the ghostly gaps, silences, and omissions in narratives concerning the Philippines, as well as to sense other ways of being and producing knowledge beyond empire's haunting. Some of the cultural pieces Alana has written about and presented on include the artwork of Crystal Z. Campbell, the television show The Assassination of Gianni Versace, the film Bitter Melon, and the punk band Aye Nako. Alana has published in the Journal of Asian American Studies, Alon: Journal for Filipinx American and Diasporic Studies, and Feminist Formations (forthcoming). Since 2019, Alana has served on the board of the Feminist Research Institute at UNM. They have taught in the American studies department, the Women, Gender, and Sexuality studies program, and for the College of Arts and Sciences. She is also an organizer with the United Graduate Workers of UNM, fighting for better pay, benefits, and working conditions for graduate workers. In 2021, Alana was elected as one of the 12 Bargaining Committee members that will represent the union in contract negotiations with UNM administration.

Selected Publications

• Alana J. Bock, Book Review: The Filipino Primitive: Accumulation and Resistance in the American Museum (Alon: Journal for Filipinx American and Diasporic Studies, 2021) (https://escholarship.org/uc/item/88t273xd)
• Alana J. Bock, Illegible Imperatives: Filipinx American Identity, Anti-Blackness, and the Artwork of Crystal Z. Campbell (Journal of Asian American Studies, 2021) (https://muse.jhu.edu/article/797817/pdf)
• Alana J. Bock, Out of Place and Out of Time: Andrew Cunanan, Darren Criss, and Queer Filipinx Haunting (Forthcoming in Feminist Formations)
• Alana J. Bock, Aye Nako!: The Frustrations of Filipinx American Illegibility (Forthcoming essay in the anthology Filipinx American Studies: Reckoning, Reclamation, and Transformation)

Courses Taught

• AMST 1130: Introduction to American Popular Culture; GNDR 2110: Introduction to Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; ARSC 198: Fostering Scholarly Minds

Contact

she/they
ajbock@unm.edu