USC.edu
Department of American Studies and Ethnicity

Aydin Quach

Ph.D. Student
Aydin Quach
Email amquach@usc.edu

Biography

*Open to inquries from prospective applicants to the USC ASE Ph.D. Program*

Aydin Quach (he/they) is a scholar and artist specializing in Asian/American Studies, Performance Studies, Ethnomusicology, and Global Asias

Aydin’s research is concerned with the nature in which Asian/Americans attune to the sounds and experiences of nightlife, and how these are informed by diasoric experiences such as partying abroad and the politics of fun as a prisim for rethinking diasporic cultural production by queer Asian/Americans. Aydin’s writing and thoughts have been published in the Journal of Festive Studies, Critical Ethnic Studies, as well as in other op-ed venues such as Huffington Post.

In sum, their research is invested in the worldmaking potential of queer Asian/American nightlife in online spaces (gaming), in the club scene (hosting/djing), the commercial music festival/circuit party, as well as the transpacific underground (the sex party, homepa/homepar). 

Supervisor: Dr. Amelia Jones

Education

  • BA Univ British Columbia, 5/2022
  • MA Univ British Columbia

  • Research, Teaching, Practice, and Clinical Appointments

    • Center For Southeast Asian Research – Program Administrator, University of British Columbia, 08/01/2023-08/31/2024
    • Department of Asian Studies/History – Teaching Assistant, University of British Columbia, 09/01/2020-05/01/2024

    Other Employment

    • Cultural Coordinator, Canadian International Dragon Boat Festival Society, 06/01/2023 – 06/30/2024

  • Summary Statement of Research Interests

    My dissertation, Gaysia as Method: Queer Southeast Asian/North American Circuits of Play, examines how queer Asian/North American (“gaysian”) communities create and circulate nightlife worlds across Southeast Asia and North America. While Euro-American queer nightlife has been extensively theorized, the cultural production of queer Asian diasporic communities remains understudied, often rendered invisible or derivative. This gap obscures how queer Asian subjects negotiate belonging and exclusion and limits broader theories of diaspora, globalization, and queerness.

    I develop “Gaysia” as an analytic orientation that maps cultural geographies of play through Electronic Dance Music (EDM) events linking Vietnam, Los Angeles, Vancouver, and Las Vegas. Gaysia highlights porous borders: in Asia, where queerness is often underground or criminalized, and in North America, where Asian/North Americans remain marginalized in queer nightlife. By tracing these transpacific circuits, I show how gaysians reimagine identity, kinship, and citizenship beyond nation-centered frameworks, practicing what Muñoz terms “disidentification.”

    Methodologically, I combine multi-sited ethnography, interviews with DJs and organizers, and soundscape ethnography informed by my own DJ training. This project demonstrates how gaysian nightlife unsettles fixed categories of “queer” and “Asian,” challenges Euro-American dominance in diaspora studies, and affirms queer Asian diasporic creativity as central to contemporary understandings of globalization and belonging.

    Research Keywords

    Asian North American Studies, Asian American Studies, Asian Studies, Southeast Asian Studies, East Asia, Transpacific, Music, Sound, Voice, Popular Culture, Youth, Culture, Electronic Dance Music, Sexuality, Sex, Fetish, Queer, Disability, Festivity, Affect, Ethnography, Ethnomusicology, Play, Immersion, Performance, Listening, Video Games, Performance Studies, Cultural Studies, Ethnic Studies, Global Asias

    Research Specialties

    Asian/American Studies (Southeast Asia/America), Cultural Studies, Sound Studies, Performance Theory, Global Asias

  • Conference Presentations

    • Association of Asian American Studies Annual Conference , 4/2025
    • SEMSCHC – Society for Ethnomusicology, Southern California and Hawai’i Chapter Graduate Conference , 3/2025
    • UCLA Performance Studies Graduate Conference , 2/2025
    • Ritsumeikan University/University of British Columbia Year End Graduate Conference , 4/2024
    • Sound Check! A Festival of Asian American Music, Sound, and Scholarship , 4/2024
    • Association of Asian American Studies Annual Conference 2024 , 4/2024
    • University of British Columbia Asian Studies Graduate Conference , 3/2024
    • DanceCult 23: After the Pandemic Conference , 10/2023
    • Southeast Asian Graduate Student Association (SEASGRAD) Conference , 10/2023
    • Junior Scholars Queer Symposium , 8/2023
    • Hong Kong University History Symposium , 5/2023
    • University of Hawai?i at Manoa School of Pacific and Asian Studies (SPAS) Graduate Student Conference , 4/2023
    • Ritsumeikan University/University of British Columbia Year End Graduate Conference , 4/2023
    • University of British Columbia Asian Studies Graduate Conference , 3/2023
    • Shifting Tides Graduate History Conference , 2/2023
    • University of British Columbia Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology Conference , 5/2022
    • UNESCO International Youth Forum on Cultural Diversity , 6/2021
    • Introduction to Asian American Studies: Sex Talk: Asian American Intimacy and Sexuality, 2024-2025
    • Introduction to Canada: An Asian Canadian History for Today, 2023-2024
    • Critical Studies in Sexuality: Online Sex/Sex Online, 2023-2024
    • Japan, Canada, and the Pacific: Cultural Studies: Queer (and Asian) Vancouver: Transpacifc Attachments, 2023-2024
    • Japan, Canada, and the Pacific: Political Perspect: Stolen Childhood: Mui Tsai and Transpacific Child Labour Trafficking, 2023-2024
    • Introduction to Canada: Asian Migration into North America, 2022-2023
    • Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in Japanese Literature : Japanese Body Horror, Sexuality, and Ero Guro Nansensu in Edogawa Rampo’s The Caterpillar, 2022-2023
    • Introduction to Canada: Whose Canada? Anti-Asian Racism, Intergenerational Migration, and “Asian Canada”, 2022-2023

  • Book Review

    • Natchee Blu Barnd (Ed.). (2025). Review: Lived Refuge: Gratitude, Resentment, Resilience, by Vinh Nguyen. Ethnic Studies Review.pp. 144–146.

    Journal Article

    • Alix Boirot (Ed.). (2023). Where You Are: Community and Space Making Through Shuffle Circles at EDM Events. Journal of Festive Studies. Vol. 5,pp. 356-391.
    • USC Doctoral Fellowship, 2024 –
    • East Asian Studies Center Graduate Fellowship, 2024-2025
    • USC Transpacific Studies Fellowship, 2024-2025
    • UBC Affiliated Scholarship, 2023 – 2024
    • UBC History Department Teaching Award, 2023
    • Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Canada Graduate Scholarship Master’s Award , 2022 – 2023
    • Hector Gordon Munro Scholarship in History, 2022
    • Peter Harnetty Prize in Asian Studies, 2022
    • UBC Institute of Asian Research Fellowship, 2022
    • Honours History Research Grant, 2021
    • John Alexander McDonald Scholarship in Humanities, 2021

  • Professional Memberships

    • Society for Ethnomusicology Southern California and Hawai’i Chapter, 2025 –
    • Association of Asian American Studies, 2022 –
    • Association of Asian Studies, 2022 –