Tara Fickle is an associate professor of Asian American studies at Northwestern University. Prior to joining Northwestern, she was at the University of Oregon. She received her PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles, and her BA from Wesleyan University. Fickle’s research and teaching interests include Asian/Asian American literature and culture, Game studies, the digital humanities, and mixed race studies. 

Her first book, The Race Card: From Gaming Technologies to Model Minorities, (NYU Press, 2019, winner of Before Columbus Foundation’s American Book Award), explores how games have been used to establish and combat Asian and Asian American racial stereotypes. Her book with coeditor Chris Patterson, Made in Asia/America: Why video games were never (really) about Us (Duke University Press, 2024), explores the key role video games play within the race-makings of Asia/America. 

Fickle is currently working on a digital archive and analysis of the canonical Asian American anthology, Aiiieeeee! (Aiiieeeee.org), with additional research projects on Chinese gold farming and the racialized dimensions of esports.

Fickle’s critical and creative work has appeared in Modern Fiction Studies, Comparative Literature Studies, Journal of Asian American Studies, MELUS, and various public humanities portals. She also runs You on the Market, a comprehensive website for academic job-seekers.

Fickle reviewed an early draft of Gaming Blockchain and the Asiatic Forms of Web3.