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Ren-yo is an associate professor in the departments of Critical Race and Political Economy and Gender Studies 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. Ren-yo received their PhD in Ethnic Studies from University of California, Riverside, and their Master’s degree in Asian American Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles.
While residing in Los Angeles for eight years (2009-2017), they were part of DPN’s launch, 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 (former board member), St. John’s Transgender Health Program in 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 guide Ren-yo’s pedagogy, community research, and political investments and collaborations.
Their forthcoming book with Duke University Press, currently titled Carceral Coalitions, focuses on the paradox and emergence of progressive carceral reforms such as hate crimes, community policing, and gay/trans jailing from the 1980s onward in Los Angeles.