JS Wu (they/she) is a scholar and artist thinking about the intersections of labor, technology, and identity in the broadly defined field of animation. They are an Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies in the English Department at the University of Pittsburgh. They are currently working on an academic monograph titled The Animating In-between: Visions of Labor in Animation and an experimental graphic novel titled Asian American Psycho. Their academic work has been published in Animation Studies and ASAP/Review and they have forthcoming publications in The Encyclopedia of Animation Studies, JCMS, and The Oxford Handbook of Chinese American Cinema. They have also published graphic essays on race and new media for general audiences in The Believer and ANMLY. They have held fellowships at the Humanities Center at the University of Pittsburgh (2025-2026) and the Kelly Writers House at the University of Pennsylvania (2023-2024). They maintain an art practice working in film, animation, comics, and a variety of paper-based media and their work as a storyboard artist can also be seen in Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You (2018) and various works of Jaamil Olawale Kosoko.

Courses Taught 

Global Anime

Technologies of the Body

Animation Studies

Hand-Drawn Animation

Storyboarding

Affiliations

Film & Media Studies Program

Asian Studies Center

Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies Program