Irene Kuo

Irene Kuo earned her Ph.D. in German Studies from Stanford University and served as Visiting Professor at Wake Forest University prior to joining the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 

Her research and teaching focuses on 21st century German literature, forced migration narratives, the intersection of asylum law and literature, and concepts of humanitarianism in life writing. Her book project examines the contentious relationship between notions of autobiographical authenticity and asylum credibility in the narrativization of migration and displacement. Her work investigates debates on refugee legitimacy largely centered on German and European Union responses to the so-called refugee crisis in 2015. By looking at how German and EU policies regulate accounts of asylum, her research considers how personal narratives interact with authenticity discourses to shape the production and reception of “refugee storytelling.” Currently, she is exploring how literary and audiovisual forms beyond the novel, such as recent poetry and documentary film post-2015, engage in rhetorical and cinematographic techniques to interrogate the pursuit of verification, as well as the label of refugee literatures.