These days, if Bunkong Tuon isn’t teaching, he’s learning fiddle tunes on the guitar. Why? So he can play with his colleagues, Jordan Smith and Hugh Jenkins, at the Beuth House Minerva Jams traditional music sessions.

Tuon is also spending a lot of time lately on an old pastime – skateboarding – at the request of his pre-teen daughter. Teaching her to skate on the streets and in the parks of upstate New York, Tuon says he feels almost young again.

Tuon, who joined the English Department in 2008, teaches courses that include “Literary Haunting in U.S. Ethnic Literature;” “Discourses on the Vietnam/U.S. War;” “Asian American Literature, History and Film;” “Black Lives Matter Poetry;” “Toni Morrison;” and “Southeast Asian American Literature.”

He focuses his research on Asian American literature, trauma studies, refugee studies and translation studies. He published his first novel last summer, “Koan Khmer,” which tells the story of a boy who comes to the U.S. from Cambodia fleeing genocide.

Tuon, a recipient of the 2025 Stillman Prize for Excellence in Research, is also a faculty mentor of Posse Scholars (Union Posse 18). He proudly gives a “shout-out to my Posse!”

He lives with his wife, Nicole Calandra, and two beautiful, smart children, in Niskayuna, N.Y.

FIRST APP YOU LOOK AT IN THE MORNING: I try not to look at my phone in the morning. But, like most of us, I am probably addicted to social media. I check Facebook to see how my friends and family are doing. I still have family in Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand.

WHAT ARE YOU READING? I finally got a chance to read Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “Between the World and Me.” I see it as a love letter from a father to his son, telling him what it means to be Black in this world and how to survive. I am a father myself, so I find the book moving and meaningful.

WHAT ARE YOU WATCHING? My kids. I love to see them grow and blossom into unique, individual beings, with minds and hearts of their own. It’s an honor to be their parent.

BEST PIECE OF ADVICE YOU RECEIVED: This is from Harry Marten: “Teach the books that you love, BK, and the rest will follow.” And this still works. When you teach the books that you love, students will see your passion and gravitate toward it, trying to see what it is that you see in these books. And if they don’t get on board, you will still have a good time teaching those books. It’s a win-win.

ONE SKILL YOU WISH YOU HAD: I wish I had this skill of a good guitarist: learning by ear. Imagine going to a jam session, where someone calls out a song and the key it is in and a few notes in, you know exactly what to do. You just jam and have good fun. Wouldn’t that be cool, Hugh and Jordan?

THREE DINNER PARTY GUESTS (living or deceased): I adore Toni Morrison for her intellect, wisdom and writing. I also adore James Baldwin for similar reasons. I don’t think I need a third person to have an evening of good food, amazing conversations and wonderful stories. It would be the kind of evening you go back to in your mind to discover new kernels of wisdom on every visit, like a good book that is filled with voices and visions.

LITTLE KNOWN FACT ABOUT YOU: I was a college dropout. This probably had something to do with me being a child survivor of the Cambodian genocide. When you went through something like that, a normal path is not for you. After dropping out of a community college in Boston, I moved to California, where I worked at my uncle’s donut shop and then, later, as a night janitor. Somewhere, somehow on this journey, I discovered books at a local library and, after that moment of epiphany, I wanted to dedicate the rest of my life to reading and writing. I fictionalize this moment in my autobiographical novel, “Koan Khmer.”

FAVORITE UNION MEMORY/EXPERIENCE: It was my first year at Union, and what did I know about teaching, especially just coming out of graduate school? Luckily, my office was next to Harry Marten’s. Every morning on the second floor of the Humanities building (what is now Karp Hall), Harry peeked his head in my office and asked how I was doing. Then I told him about this class or that class. Harry and I talked until it was time for one of us to teach. After talking to Harry, I felt like I could teach anything. I didn’t need coffee. Harry was my coffee. He woke me up to the good world of teaching and mentoring. And that’s what Union is, a place of good people.

ONE THING YOU CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT: Coffee (medium roast, no cream, no sugar, please).

WHICH LIVING PERSON DO YOU MOST ADMIRE? My uncles and aunts. They too survived the genocide. They had to quietly hold themselves together while they rebuilt their lives and raised their children. Their foundation is based on love, family and hard work. That’s what I learned from them, and it’s what got me through school and work. My success is their success.