My research focuses on the the intersection of history and popular culture in Japan. My first book The Afterlife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi was published in 2022 and looks at how and why the biography of the 16th-century samurai, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, was reinterpreted during and immediately after World War II. My current project,Warrior Princesses, Willful Wives, and Long-suffering Mothers: Japanese Women Write History, examines the ways women writers of historical fiction use the genre to dismantle patriarchal narratives of Japan’s past.
I teach in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, but my courses are often cross-listed with Critical Identity Studies, Media Studies, and Environmental Studies. In my classes, we consider how narratives people create are shaped by cultural, historical, and sociopolitical influences, and how language and stories are often used to curate our understanding of the environment and the world.
B.A. East Asian Studies, DePauw University
M.A. East Asian Studies, Stanford University
Ph.D. East Asian Languages and Cultures, Indiana University
I teach all levels of Japanese and advanced literature and culture courses in translation. These include:
Nightmare Japan
Totoro Saves the World: Miyazaki Hayao and the Environmental Imagination
Postwar Japanese Cinema
Japanese Ecocriticism
Japanese Popular Culture in Fiction and Film
Narratives of War and Peace
Japanese Women Writers
In Search of the Samurai
History and Popular Culture in Japan
My research interests include early modern and modern Japanese history, national identity in 20th-century Japan, modern literature, gender, popular culture, and media studies. I am particularly interested in how and why history and popular culture intersect.
“When Women Write History: Nogami Yaeko, Ariyoshi Sawako, and Nagai Michiko.” In Rebecca Copeland, ed, TheHandbookofModern and Contemporary Japanese Women Writers (MHM Limited, 2022).
“Deconstructing the Taikō: The Problem of Hideyoshi as Postwar Business Model.” Mechademia 10: World Renewal – Counterfactual Histories. University of Minnesota Press, vol. 10 (2015), 81-96.
“Nagai Michiko and Ariyoshi Sawako Rewrite the Taikō.” US-Japan Women’s Journal. Sophia University Press, vol. 51 (2017), 59-79.
“A Multimedia Approaches to Teaching Japanese Popular Culture.” Digital Asia, special issue, ASIANetwork Exchange, vol. 25: 2 (2018), 61-81.
