Biographical Profile:

For J. Cuasay

J. Cuasay graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelors degree in Comparative Literature from Fordham University, College at Lincoln Center NY where he received the Honors Award for his thesis Vision/Text/Listening, an examination of Freud’s traditional psychological approach to literature exemplified by the Oedipal/Hero narrative and further deconstructed by the theories of Jacques Lacan and Michel Foucault. It compared The Father, a Scandinavian play by August Strindberg, a collection of experimental feminist prose by Sharon Dee Solwitz, and Dogeaters, a third world novel from Filipina performance artist, Jessica Haggedorn. The thesis recast dynamic tensions of the nuclear family through Lacan’s privileging of mother-child bonds and deconstructs Lacan’s theory of language acquisition brought on by the Mirror Stage and entrance into the Symbolic Order. This is further underscored by Foucault’s notion of counter-resistance which points to alternative literatures and alternative cultural histories that stand in contrast to more traditional western paradigms. Specifically, it subverts the paradigm of the traditional male heroic narrative understood principally through the Oedipal Narrative, exemplified by Strindberg’s play, in support of more diverse and post-modern ones like the works of Solwitz and Haggedorn.

After graduating from Fordham, J. Cuasay taught English Composition and College Algebra I at John Jay College, NYC. While teaching, he began his studies of the Japanese language at the Japan Society of New York. Rapidly advancing, he was successfully recruited by the Japanese Embassy for the JET Program to work in Hiroshima, Japan as an English Instructor. While in Japan, he taught English for the elementary and secondary schools of Saeki-gun on the island of Noumi and worked closely with several cultural and civic groups. He also edited and published the Hiro Sandwich, a monthly prefecture-wide publication in Japanese and English. Through the Noumi Board of Education, he was encouraged to develop and implement more advanced university and adult level classes that went beyond basic conversation and employed cultural exchange through the sharing of world myths, folklore and literature. The best examples of this were a Coffee-House folk gathering organized in the summer of 1995 for the release of Aung Sang Suu Kyi, which brought together the World Friendship Center of Hiroshima with the Japan Burmese Relief Center from Nara Prefecture. This was followed by a Hibakusha (A-bomb Victim) art exhibit and discussion panel for the 50th year anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.

J. Cuasay left his teaching post in Japan upon acceptance to the MA program in International Cinema Studies at Ohio University’s School of Film in the College of Fine Arts. The coursework covered film production methods from story-boarding and scriptwriting through 16mm film/video phases of shooting and editing, sound studio production and first interlock. The degree also had a strong scholarly and international component requiring a minor concentration in International Studies, foreign language, several international film courses and teaching assistantships, including designing and teaching courses in Film History, Chinese New Wave, Japanese Modern Film and Literature, Scriptwriting, Classic and Advanced Film Theory, Documentary Film Ethics, and Film Aesthetics. In this regard, he was fortunate to work with Dr. George Semsel and Dr. Jenny Kwok-Wah Lau, two prominent professors of Chinese Film. He also presided as the President and Chair of the International Film Club and was responsible for writing its grant proposals, allocating funding and programming quarterly film screenings for the Ohio University campus and community. His final year, he partnered the Society with the International Student Union, helping augment several departmental programs, most notably the African Studies, International Studies and Philosophy departments. He also brought Lars Von Trier’s 1996 Cannes Award winning Breaking The Waves to the Film School.

Through the assistantships, he also had the opportunity to work with Dr. Ruth Bradley, Director of the Athens Film and Video Center. He was the Associate Editor for Wide Angle, a scholarly film journal published quarterly through Johns Hopkins Press, and worked on its special two-issue commemoration of Cinema 16, on the film society's 50th Anniversary. He was also the Program Editor and committee Prescreener for the Athens Center's Annual International Film and Video Festival.

The graduate work in International Cinema Studies culminated in a written and successfully defended thesis on Korean Cinema published through UMI with portions made available on-line. The thesis examined the relationship between popular Korean social and religious movements and Korea's struggles for national unity and identity. History and politics were explicated and illustrated by parallel struggles in Korean literary movements and film practices. Specifically, the thesis expanded University of Southern California Professor Kyung Hyun Kim’s, notion that Korean Cinema attempts to "perform the nation’s unity" despite its present day contradictions by implicating the forces of decolonization, democratization, reunification and modernization. In his research, he demonstrated how Buddhist and Shamanistic motifs were used in several contemporary Korean films as well as films exhibited in a 1996 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, NYC. These films enacted and transformed ancient rituals and beliefs in order to perform a cohesive healing to what Kim characterized as the Korean "fractured state".

J. Cuasay was fortunate enough to land a job prior to his graduation. He worked as the Assistant to the Director at the American Film Institute in the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington DC. While at AFI, he was the Manager of the Theater Patron Membership Program and successfully transferred the program from the Los Angeles Film School to DC where it was managed and maintained in-house. He also assisted in the publication of Preview, AFI’s monthly program guide to film and membership events, and provided press/public relations and assistance with international embassy and special events, including the 1997 European Union Film Festival, The Frank Capra Series and the complete feature length works of Andrei Tarkovsky. He also assisted in the on-line tribute to 1997 Lifetime Achievement Award winner Robert Wise.

Interested in learning about Development, J. Cuasay joined Georgetown University in the midst of their $750M Capital Campaign and worked as a Development Assistant in the Office of Alumni & University Relations under the Director of Development Programs, who raises funding for financial aid and scholarships as part of the Third Century Campaign.

He is married to Eileen Sarett-Cuasay, Ph.D (Clinical Psychology at Gallaudet University). In May of 1999, they relocated to Gainesville, Florida where Eileen completed her Psychology Internship at UF Shands.While there, J. Cuasay worked for the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art in the Office of Development, where he was responsible for membership and special events for the Harn Alliance. Upon completing her internship, Eileen accepted a job in Atlanta, GA at the Grady Memorial Hospital. J. Cuasay currently works at the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University as the Manager of Visitor Services. He is also a Theology Student at Candler. When not working, he patiently learns the guitar, works on his piano, sings with AUDACITY and writes.

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