Lily Jiale Chen

she/they
writer, activist, curator

Lily works on decolonizing sites of collective memory in Detroit, including museums, memorials, and historical markers. Lily is an assistant curator at the Detroit Historical Society and doctoral student in American Culture at the University of Michigan. Her curatorial work celebrates the history of communities of color, including Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, and Arab histories of Detroit and Michigan. Her doctoral research focuses on the relationship between museums and contemporary projects of American settler colonialism and honors the resilience of Indigenous peoples of North America, Pacific Islanders, and Latin American Indigenous Diasporas.

Lily graduated with a B.A. in Sociology and Critical Race & Ethnic Studies from the University of Chicago in 2017 and a Masters in Public History from Wayne State in 2023. Lily is honored to live and work on the Native lands of Waawiiyaataanong/Detroit with her wife Jess, 2 cats Ellie & Doufu, and pup Suki.

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