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1005 Diana M. Pho

a.k.a Ay-Leen the Peacemaker

Diana M. Pho is a fandom scholar, activist, editor, performer, and blogger. She is primarily known for being the founding editor of the award-winning and oldest-running multicultural steampunk blog Beyond Victoriana.

She first became involved in the steampunk community in 2008 as a steampunk convention speaker in cooperation with the now-defunct performance troupe, The Penny Dreadfuls of New England. Diana has also been an associated speaker with the former Wandering Legion of the Thomas Tew.

In 2009, she founded the Beyond Victoriana and since then, she has traveled the United States as a professional convention speaker about social justice issues in steampunk and science fiction. She is also an involved blogger with the Hugo & Nebula-winning website Tor.com, and in 2011 and 2012, she worked as the curator and editor behind Tor.com's annual Steampunk Week.

In 2012, Diana earned her Master's in Performance Studies at New York University, where she explores steampunk on an academic level. Her academic published work can be found in Steampunk Magazine: Issues #1 - 7 (Combustion Books, 2011), Fashion Talks: Undressing the Power of Style (SUNY Press, 2012), and Steaming into a Victorian Future (Scarecrow Press, 2012). She has written introductions to the books Anatomy of Steampunk by Katherine Gleason, Steampunk World, edited by Sarah Hans, and The Best of Spanish Steampunk, edited by James and Marion Womack.

Diana has been interviewed about steampunk and its evolving subculture for many media outlets, including BBC America, the Science Channel, the Travel Channel, HGTV, and the Science Channel; the websites Airship Ambassador, Racialicious, and NerdCaliber; and the books The Steampunk Bible (Abrams Image, May 2011), Steampunk: Reloaded (Tachyon Publications, 2010), and The WisCon Chronicles Vol 5 (Aqueduct Press, 2010).

Outside of steampunk, Diana participates in the larger science fiction community and has worked for several years in book publishing.

Photo by Rachel Klingberg

External Links
Interview - Airship Ambassador
Academia.edu
Steampunk Magazine
Fashion Talks
Steaming into a Victorian Future
Steampunk Bible
Steampunk: Reloaded
The WisCon Chronicles Vol 5


See Also
1010. Beyond Victoriana
2279. Tor
2495. Marian Womack
2496. The Best of Spanish Steampunk
2515. Ediciones Nevsky


Collection Tags
Blogger