Degree Pursued: PhD

Anticipated Degree Year: 2024

Committee Chair/Advisor: Imane Terhmina

Discipline: Romance Studies

Primary Language: French

Research Countries: Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia

Research Interests: Sarena Tien is a PhD candidate at Cornell University with a graduate minor in Feminist, Gender, & Sexuality Studies. Her project explores the political potential of female friendship and its power to subvert hegemonies in Francophone African and Asian literature and cinema. Other research interests include the intersections of race, gender, and identity and how issues of heteropatriarchy, colonialism, and exophony inform the work of women writersand filmmakers. She received her BA from Randolph-Macon College and her MA from Cornell University. As an alumna of the Teaching Assistant Program in France and City Year DC, she also has experience teaching elementary and high school students.