Karen Tongson is the author of the forthcoming NORMPORN: Television and the Spectacle of
Normalcy, as well as Why Karen Carpenter Matters (2019), and Relocations: Queer Suburban
Imaginaries (2011). She received Lambda Literary’s Jeanne Córdova Award for Lesbian/Queer
Nonfiction for her body of writing in 2019. She is Chair of gender & sexuality studies, and
Professor of English and American studies & ethnicity at USC, where she also directs the
Mellon-funded Consortium for Gender, Sexuality, Race and Public Culture. Tongson is co-editor
of the award-winning book series, Postmillennial Pop with Henry Jenkins at NYU Press. Her
writing and cultural commentary have recently appeared in Slate, NPR, The Los Angeles Review
of Books, PBS NewsHour, The Los Angeles Times, The AV Club, Entertainment Weekly, and
KCRW’s Good Food among other venues. She co-hosts the GenX-themed podcast Waiting to
X-Hale with Wynter Mitchell-Rohrbaugh, as well as The Gaymazing Race (a queer podcast
about The Amazing Race) with Nicole J. Georges.