Ren-yo received their PhD in Ethnic Studies from UC Riverside, their master’s degree in Asian American studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. While residing in Los Angeles for eight years (2009-2017), they collaborated with DPN, leading the editorial collective that produced our first zines in 2013 and 2014. They also volunteered and worked with California Coalition for Women Prisoners-LA, Gender Justice Los Angeles, St. John’s Transgender Health Program (South LA), UAW 2865 E-Board and Anti-Oppression Committee, and formerly Data Center-LA and Letsgo! Liberation Trans Legal Clinic (LGL).

Previous to living in Los Angeles, Ren-yo resided in New York, NY (2001-2009), and served as a volunteer and community member of organizations such as Audre Lorde Project, FIERCE, and Sylvia Rivera Law Project. These vital experiences of working within queer/trans* of color-led community organizations continue to form and guide my pedagogy, community research, and political investments and collaborations.

Ren-yo is currently an assistant professor in Gender Studies and Critical Social Thought at Mount Holyoke College. Their community-based scholarship and action research examine late 20th-century carceral technologies, abolition, transformative justice, QTBIPoC antiviolence activism, and visual cultures of resistance. Their current book project focuses on the emergence of hate crimes, community policing and gay/trans jailing in the 1980s Los Angeles, and the establishment of state-sponsored antiviolence strategies via progressive carceral reform.