In this presentation I seek to investigate Cold War 2.0 within the framework of transnational American Studies, with special attention to the geopolitics of the transpacific.
On the one hand, I examine the role that technology has played in the American national imaginary and proliferation of what Donald Pease powerfully critiques as American exceptionalism. Specifically, I explore why and how artificial intelligence and other four critical technologies may serve as hardware and infrastructure of Cold War 2.0.
On the other hand, I examine Cold War 2.0 as a possible turning point in the rise of the Global South and interrogate it in terms of a global power shift within the longue durée of the US-centered global order. As a concluding gesture, I perform a reading of the speculative fiction, Ghost Fleet, and discuss a possible scenario that critics refer to as “the post-American world.”

Dr. Yuan Shu is Professor of English, American Studies and Director of the Asian Studies Program at Texas Tech University.
Dr. Shu earned his Ph.D. in English and American Studies from Indiana University at Bloomington. He has co-edited several influential volumes, including American Studies as Transnational Practice (Dartmouth College Press, 2015) and Oceanic Archives and Transpacific American Studies (Hong Kong University Press, 2019). His current book project, Empire and Cosmo-politics: Technology, Race, Transpacific Chinese American Writing, is under revision with the Univ. of Massachusetts Press. He is a 2025 fellow of the Obama Institute.

You can download the poster for the event here.

Presentation in the seminar “Chinese American Relations” – Session open to everyone.

The presentation traces the main features of the Westward Movement and the engagement of the United States in the Pacific as well as in Asia, especially the Korean and Vietnam wars. They are the background to the rise of transpacific literatures.

Dr. Yuan Shu is Professor of English, American Studies and Director of the Asian Studies Program at Texas Tech University.
Dr. Shu earned his Ph.D. in English and American Studies from Indiana University at Bloomington. He has co-edited several influential volumes, including American Studies as Transnational Practice (Dartmouth College Press, 2015) and Oceanic Archives and Transpacific American Studies (Hong Kong University Press, 2019). His current book project, Empire and Cosmo-politics: Technology, Race, Transpacific Chinese American Writing, is under revision with the Univ. of Massachusetts Press. He is a 2025 fellow of the Obama Institute.

You can download the poster for the event here.

Danielle Spencer is the author of Metagnosis: Revelatory Narratives of Health and Identity (Oxford University Press, 2021) and co-author of Perkins-Prize-winning The Principles and Practice of Narrative Medicine (OUP, 2017). A faculty member in the Columbia University Narrative Medicine Graduate Program, her scholarly and creative work appears in diverse outlets, from The Lancet to Ploughshares, and she is the Editor of the Anthem Press Advances in Human Medicines book series. Formerly artist/musician David Byrne’s Art Director, Spencer holds a B.A. from Yale University, an M.S. in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, and has been awarded fellowships at MacDowell and Yaddo. Lives in New York city. 

You can download the poster for the event here.