Kate Firestone

Kate Firestone

Biography

Kate Firestone, preferred pronouns she/her/hers, is a fourth-year PhD student in the Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures (WRAC) department here at Michigan State University.  As a Korean American adoptee, her research interests include: identity formation, cultural rhetorics, Asian American rhetorics, adoption studies, digital rhetorics, visual rhetorics, queer rhetorics, feminist rhetorics, and community engagement.  She is currently working on her dissertation, which focuses on the ways writing facilitates transnational, transracial adoptees’ (particular Korean American adoptees’) practices of identity construction, self-determination, community, and cultural citizenship.

In addition to programmatic work, Kate is working in the Writing Center @ MSU as the Red Cedar Writing Project fellow and is returning to the RCAH Fellows program for a second year.  She is currently serving as the vice-president of the Asian Pacific American Graduate Alliance (APAGA) at MSU, and has been active in Korean American adoptee groups and events across the country.  When not in school, Kate enjoys running (very slowly), reading fiction, watching movies and TV, and chilling with her partner and two cats.