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

Chicago storyteller and speaker Dr. Ada Cheng delivers a keynote address at the University of Georgia.
Pictured above: Dr. Ada Cheng delivers the
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.

  1. Yellow Peril Past and Present: Understanding Asian America through Personal and Historical Stories

    Topics: Asian American; Anti-Racism; Immigration
    Learn More

  2. Our Words, Our Truths: Storytelling for Collective Identity and Community Engagement

    Topics: Asian American; Intersectionality; Equity
    Learn More

Chicago storyteller and performer sits in a group circle at the National Storytelling Conference in 2017.
Logo for Illinois Humanities, offering programming from Chicago-based gender and diversity speaker Dr. Ada Cheng.

To Book Ada through Illinois Humanities …

  1. Contact Ada to confirm her availability for the desired booking date
    (allow six weeks from date of event)
  1. 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

Chicago college and university speaker Dr. Ada Cheng