Biography
Steve Riep, Professor of Chinese and comparative literature, specializes in modern and contemporary Chinese literature, film, and culture. He is an affiliated faculty member in both the Asian Studies and International Cinema Studies programs at BYU. From 2018-2021 he was a BYU Humanities Center Fellow. Riep currently serves as the inaugural coordinator for BYU's Masters in Professional Language (MAPL) program. He has served on campus as head of the Chinese section of the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages (2010-2013 fall 2014, and fall 2019) and as co-director of BYU’s International Cinema Program (2011-2014). Off campus he has served as president of the Western Conference of the Association for Asian Studies (WCAAS) from 2015-2016 and on their executive board since 2009. His articles and reviews have appeared in such venues as Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, Modern China, The Oxford Handbook of Disability History, Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles and Reviews, Chinese as a Second Language, and the Dictionary of Literary Biography (Vols. 328, 370, and 387). He has also translated contemporary fiction, poetry, essays, and drama from both China and Taiwan. His research projects past and present have been funded by the Fulbright Foundation, American Council of Learned Societies and the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as the College of Humanities and David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies at BYU. His current research projects explore the depiction of disability in modern and contemporary Chinese literature and visual culture and the concept of mobility in modern Chinese Literature in film in regards to disability and gender.
Research Interests
Modern and contemporary Chinese literature; transnational Chinese film; Taiwan literature and film; ecocriticism; the depiction of disability in the creative arts; and war, memory, and literature.Teaching Interests
Modern and contemporary Chinese literature (fiction, poetry and prose); transnational Chinese film; traditional fiction and drama; traditional and modern Chinese culture, advanced Chinese language, and comparative literature.Education
- Ph.D., Modern Chinese Literature , Traditional Chinese Fiction and Drama as well as Literary Theory and Comparative Literature, University of California, Los Angeles (2001)
- M.A., East Asian Languages and Cultures-Chinese Emphasis , University of California, Los Angeles (1991)
- -----, Advanced study in Chinese language and literature , Mandarin Training Center, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan (1988)
- B.A., cum laude, with departmental honors in East Asian Languages and highest departmental honors in Political Economy , University of California, Berkeley (1987)
Honors and Awards
- Humanities Center Fellow, BYU Humanities Center (2018 - 2021)
- Taiwan Fellowship, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Taiwan ROC (2019 - 2019)
- Faculty Research Grant 2018, David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies (2018 - 2019)
- Humanities Center Fellow, BYU Humanities Center (2017 - 2018)
- Chinese Startalk Grant, National Security Education Program, NSA (2016 - 2018)
Professional Citizenship
- Committee/Council Member, Association for Asian Studies: Council of Conferences (2013 - 2016)
- Other, WCAAS (2012 - 2012)