Travis Chi Wing Lau
Posted in 2025-2025 Readings and Talks
Dr. Travis Chi Wing Lau (he/him/his)is Assistant Professor of English at Kenyon College. He received his B.A. in English with a minor in Classical Civilization from the University of California, Los Angeles (2012). He received both his M.A. (2013) and Ph.D. (2018) in English at the University of Pennsylvania. His work is primarily focused on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British literature and culture with research and teaching interests in health humanities, disability studies, and the history of medicine.
Travis has contributed to numerous publications dedicated to accessible public scholarship like Synapsis, Public Books, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and Lapham’s Quarterly. He also regularly reviews collections of poetry for literary and arts journals like Up the Staircase Quarterly and Tupelo Quarterly.
Travis has over a decade of teaching experience. He previously taught at BrainChild Education, a K-12 tutoring center in Oakland, CA. From 2010-2012, he also worked as a peer learning facilitator at UCLA’s Academics in the Commons/Athletics Peer Learning Labs, where he regularly held tutorials on composition and literature. He also served as an Adjunct Instructor in English for the Community College of Philadelphia and graduate student instructor for University of Pennsylvania’s Department of English and The College of Liberal and Professional Studies Program. He was formerly Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in English at The University of Texas at Austin.
Beyond teaching, Travis has worked as a Student Educator for the Armand Hammer Museum, where he developed and gave public tours of art exhibitions. In 2010, Travis worked internationally as an intern and guest English instructor at Ryugaku Journal, a Japanese publication catering to Japanese students interested in studying abroad in the U.S., U.K., and Australia.Alongside his academic and public writing, he is also a poet who writes often about embodiment at the intersections of queerness and disability. His poetry has been widely published and nominated for the Pushcart and Best of the Net anthologies. He is also the recipient of the Greater Columbus Art Council’s Artists Elevated Award in literature.
“Funeral for Unreturned Ashes”
– Travis Chi Wing Lau
sent regrets by smoke // dull coatings of a time // now ambered // into its search for // a former light // when the world was not dark // just lightless // except for those flashpoints of skin // little currents that mark // the only things // we ever shared // to know we both craved // in the same brilliant age // a desire with gravity // the seedy impact of two bodies // who collide by choice // even at the cost of systems // still breaking // wills and testaments // that keep what remains // of you abroad // in a home you tried to make // but never bedded // until this restless sleep
Links
Travis Chi Wing Lau and the radical act of remaining tender in Matter 15 August 2025.
An Interview with Travis Chi Wing Lau in Southeast Review 11 October, 2022.
The Poetics of Autism in Los Angeles Review of Books 2 May, 2019.