Sunny Yang (B.A., Sociology and Anthropology, Swarthmore College) works on representations of territoriality in nineteenth and early twentieth century American law and literature. Her dissertation, "Fictions of Territoriality:  Legal and Literary Narratives of US Imperial Contestation Zones, 1844-1914," explores the narratives of race, progress, and justice that shaped American imperial governance in locations such as the Mexican Cession and the Panama Canal Zone. More broadly, her research interests include: critical race theory, ethnic American literature, comparative race studies, and property theory. From 2010-2011, Sunny co-coordinated Latitudes, Penn's Postcolonial Studies reading group, as well as GASAM, Penn's Graduate Asian American Studies reading group. She co-organized Intersections: A Conversation between African American and Asian American Studies, an interdisciplinary conference held at Penn November 18-19, 2011. From 2012-13, Sunny co-coordinated AmLit, the American Studies reading group, and served on the Graduate English Admissions Committee. Her final year of graduate study is supported by an Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship.

Yang is currently Assistant Professor of English at the University of Houston. Prior to that appointment, she was a visiting scholar at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an Assistant Professor of English at Louisiana State University.