Chad Shomura

Chad Shomura is a political theorist, teacher, and artist based in Denver, Colorado.

Chad was born and raised on occupied Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi. He received his BA and MA in Political Science from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and his PhD in Political Science from the Johns Hopkins University with a focus in Political Theory. He is now Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado Denver.

Chad's work focuses on affect and politics at the intersections of race, sexuality, coloniality, species, and materiality. It explores minoritarian struggles to survive and thrive, as well as the alternative ideas, aesthetics, and worlds that are created along the way. In his research and teaching, Chad engages canonical and nontraditional political thinkers through fields such as feminist, queer, and American studies and through various media, including poetry, literature, and film.

Chad's recent publications may be found in Theory & Event, American Quarterly, the Oxford Research Encyclopedia, Contemporary Political Theory, and Syndicate. He is a recipient of the University of Colorado Denver College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Activities and CU Denver’s Rosa Parks Diversity Award . Chad designs interactive art experiments in stranger intimacy, two of which were commissioned by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. He was an Assistant Editor of Political Theory: An International Journal of Political Philosophy and is on the editorial boards of Capacious: Journal of Emerging Affect Inquiry and Journal of Posthumanism.

Inspired by his feline companion ʻAe Kai, Chad settles for nothing less than a world that can embrace us all.