Education

  • B.H.A (Bachelor of Humanities and Art Intercollege Degree), Philosophy and Art, Carnegie Mellon University (2021-2025)
  • M.A., Continental Philosophy, University of Warwick (2025-2026)

Research

  • From Hegel’s ‘Dialectic’ to Dialectical Materialism: the Heretical Dialectic of Marxism?
  • Mao Zedong as Eastern Philosopher and Poet
  • Towards a Theory of Asian-Amerikan Subjecthood
  • Asian figures in the Black Radical Tradition (Yuri Kochiyama, Richard Aoki, Ho Chi Minh, I Wor Kuen, J. Sakai)
  • Translation of Chinese Hegelian Philosopher Zhang Shiying (tbd)

Field of Interest

Marxism (particularly Louis Althusser and Non-Western Interpretations), Continental Philosophy (particularly post-Kantianism), Hegelian Dialectics, Socialist Realism, Revolutionary and Anti-Colonial History, Asian-American Literatures, Aesthetic Theory (particularly for contemporary and avant-garde forms), Freudian-Lacanian Psychoanalysis, Post-Structuralism, Cultural Studies (particularly in the new Anglo-Saxon traditions of Fredric Jameson and Stuart Hall), Negative Social Ontology (particularly Afro-Pessimism), Queer Liberation

Languages

Simplified Chinese, German, French, Japanese, English

Biography

Leo is a PhD student at UCLA for Comparative Literature, originally trained in fine arts and philosophy, completing an additional master’s in Continental Philosophy, completing the dissertation A Philosophical Evaluation of Lenin’s “Conspectus of Hegel’s Book Science of Logic.” His background consisted of artistic practices of painting, abstract sculpture/installation, and performance art, while his philosophical background focused on Marxist theory & materialist dialectics, German Idealism, social ontology (with a thorough acquaintance with Althusser, Sartre, Adorno, and Hegel), and Analytic Philosophy foundations. Hence, he aims to refine and sharpen these lenses for the analysis of world literatures, peripheral histories, aesthetics, pop culture, and for his own novel theorizing (e.g., aphoristic theory or theory-fiction). Currently, he is most interested in questions such as: how change and time are made intelligible, the idea of scientificity, materialism as externality or alterity, philosophical fiction.

Conference Presentations

  • ASSOCIATION FOR LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY (APL) CONFERENCE (2026): THE OBJECT(S) OF LITERATURE – Narrative, Ideology, and the Objecthood of Memoir: Asian-American Subjectivity and the Literary Production of History (2026)
  • WARWICK POSTGRADUATE CONFERENCE (2026):  (NEO)COLONIAL IMAGES AND LITERATURE: THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE OTHER – The Phenomenological ‘Limbo State’ of Race, Nation, and Class: from Black Liberation to Neo-colonialism (2026)
  • PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION SOCIETY OF THAILAND – 29TH ANNUAL MEETING: “POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY AND POLITICAL EQUALITY” (2025) – Sartre, Equality, and the Existential Dialectic (December) https://cstschula.blog/
  • CARRIBEAN PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION – FANON AT 100 CONFERENCE (2025) – Asian-Amerikan Phenomenology: The Racial Buffer Instrument (July)
  • 2025 PACIFIC APA (AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION) – DIAP (Diversity Institute Alumni Panel): The Pseudo-Reunification of the Product with the Laborer as the Spectacular Commodity. Commentary by Professor Eric-John Russel (Universität Potsdam)
  • MARXIST LITERARY GROUP – INSTITUTE FOR CULTURE AND SOCIETY CONFERENCE 2024 (CAPITAL, IMPERIALISM, AND RACISM) – Negative Marxist Artistry: Sartre, Adorno, and Althusser from Artistic Practice to Aesthetic Theory