Speaking
Dr. Ada Cheng is available to speak at colleges, universities, businesses, nonprofit organizations, conferences, and all institutions working to improve organizational racial and gender dynamics.
Speaking Topics Include …
- Critical Personal Narratives: Integrating Storytelling and Social Critiques
- Storytelling in the Context of Higher Education
- Storytelling and Social Justice
- Sexual Assault on College Campus and Asian American Experiences
- Decentering Whiteness in Sexual Assault Discourse
- Race and Gender-Based Violence
- Bystander Intervention Training
- Intimate Partner Violence/Dating Violence
- Sexual Assault
- Maintaining Healthy Relationships
- Consent
- Rape Culture
Recent Keynote Addresses
2023 — Second Chance
Power of Words Conference
The Transformative Language Arts Network
2023 — A Full Circle Home: Storytelling as a Path for Inquiry, Dialogue, and Transformation
Lund-Gill Lecture
Dominican University
2022 — Intimacy & Vulnerability through Storytelling in Academia
Faculty Development Week
City Colleges of Chicago
2022 — Loving Myself With/In A Thousand Cuts
Centering Resistance: Imaginings of a New Feminist Future Conference
Women’s and Gender Studies Consortium & Gender and Women’s Studies Librarian at the University of Wisconsin at Madison
2022 — What’s New about Violence against Asian Women?: GBV in the Era of the Pandemic and Anti-Asian Racism
(Re)Claiming Our Love: Social Justice & Domestic Violence
The Network-Advocating Against Domestic Violence
2022 — The Road Less Traveled: Performing as a Feminist Sociologist
Texas Conference on Feminist Sociology
By The University of Texas at Austin
2021 — Not Quite: Navigating Citizenship and Belonging
Immigrants in Our Midst Virtual Conference
The Latino Roundtable of Southwestern Illinois
2021 — Lead from Where You Are
Asian American Heritage Month,
Environmental Protection Agency
2021 — Not Quite: Asian Americans and the “Other” in the Era of the Pandemic and Anti-Asian Racism
Asian American Heritage Month, Dominican University
2021 — A Letter to My Younger Self
Activating Heritage Conference, Chicago Cultural Alliance
2019 — Not Quite: Navigating Citizenship and Belonging
Women and Girls in Georgia Conference, Institute for Women’s Studies, University of Georgia
2019 — Finding My Way Home
Monarch(a) Showcase, Undocumented & Immigrant Allyance, Dominican University
Contact to Book Ada Directly

keynote address at the University of Georgia
Book Ada through the Road Scholars Speakers Bureau, Illinois Humanities (2023-2024)
The Road Scholars Speakers Bureau helps local nonprofit organizations in Illinois bring cultural and educational programs to their communities.
Ada’s programs are currently available until the year 2024.
- Yellow Peril Past and Present: Understanding Asian America through Personal and Historical Stories
Topics: Asian American; Anti-Racism; Immigration
Learn More - Our Words, Our Truths: Storytelling for Collective Identity and Community Engagement
Topics: Asian American; Intersectionality; Equity
Learn More
To Book Ada through Illinois Humanities …
- Contact Ada to confirm her availability for the desired booking date
(allow six weeks from date of event)
- View Road Scholar eligibility requirements and apply
I’m always inspired and moved by Ada Cheng’s words and journey. Her honesty and vulnerability fuses with her wisdom and humor to bring unforgettable stories to the page and stage alike.
— Eileen Tull
Performing artist and Co-Producer/Curator at Sappho’s Salon
