{"id":449,"date":"2023-08-18T20:27:24","date_gmt":"2023-08-19T03:27:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/live-usc-dornsife.pantheonsite.io\/cjrc\/?page_id=449"},"modified":"2026-01-21T14:48:32","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T22:48:32","slug":"graduate-students","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/cjrc\/graduate-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Graduate Students"},"content":{"rendered":" \n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\n Graduate Student Affiliates\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n \n
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\n Brad Hammond\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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History
\n\u2014<\/em><\/p>\n

Brad Hammond<\/strong> is a PhD student in the Van Hunnick History Department at the University of Southern California. His research focuses on post-WWII Japanese corporate expansion into the United States. His current project investigates the transpacific political dimensions of Japanese corporations\u2019 entry into retailing and urban redevelopment in early 1960s Los Angeles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Ana Iwataki\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture
\n\u2014<\/em><\/p>\n

Ana Iwataki<\/strong> is a writer, curator, and organizer from and based in Los Angeles. She is a PhD student in Comparative Media and Culture at the University of Southern California. Her research is grounded by her scholarly, political, and intimate commitments to the production and preservation of culture in diasporic and hyperlocal contexts. Her dissertation examines the cultural and spatial politics of 800 Traction, a former warehouse in the Arts District where artists, many of them Japanese American, lived and worked until their eviction in 2018. As a community organizer, she is embedded in a history of art and activism in Little Tokyo. She holds a BA in Art History from Pitzer College and MA in Curatorial Studies from the Sorbonne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Issay Matsumoto\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Department of History
\n\u2014<\/p>\n

Issay Matsumoto<\/strong> is a PhD candidate in the Department of History at the University of Southern California. He received his BA from Tufts University, majoring in History and American Studies with a minor in Asian American Studies. With the support of the Shinso Ito Center, his dissertation explores the social consequences of economic restructuring across the U.S. Pacific empire by tracing the rise of Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s tourism industry and its role in integrating the United States, Asia, and the Pacific Islands after the Second World War. His research has been supported and recognized by the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Labor and Working-Class History Association, UCLA Asian American Studies Center, and various institutions at USC. His scholarship has been published in American Quarterly<\/i> and the Journal of American Ethnic History<\/i>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Jun Rendich\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture
\n\u2014<\/p>\n

Jun Rendich<\/strong> is a PhD student in the Comparative Literature track of the Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture (CSLC) doctoral program. He received\u00a0his BA in Philosophy with a minor in Spanish from Swarthmore College. His research\u00a0concerns the role of religion\u00a0in Nikkei literature and political resistance across the American continent, from Canada to Argentina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Sayo Sakamoto\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures
\n\u2014<\/p>\n

Sayo Sakamoto<\/strong> is a PhD student in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures. She received her M.A. in Asian Languages and Literature from the University of Washington in 2018. Her research interests are in the cultural history of Japanese popular music, particularly, popular songs from the 1940s to 1970s. Currently, she is examining the representation of nostalgia in Japanese popular songs and its relationship with the socio-political contexts of the time. Other research interests include Japanese cinema and media studies, Japanese postwar counterculture, and gender and sexuality studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Ike Tamahana\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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East Asian Area Studies<\/p>\n

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Ike Tamanaha is a 1st<\/sup>-year MA student in East Asian Area Studies at the University of Southern California. He completed his BA in the same university and department. His current thesis project explores collaboration, friction, and power dynamics between the U.S. Civil Administration of Ryukyu (USCAR), construction and civil engineering companies, and labor unions in Okinawa during the final years of the U.S. military government in Okinawa (circa 1964-1972). Other research interests include histories of Amami migrants in Okinawa, gender and the Allied occupation of Japan, and relations between Ryukyu and Taiwan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Rouhan Zhou\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Department of History<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Ruohan Zhou<\/strong> is a PhD student in the History Department. Born and raised in Beijing, his research focuses on China, East Asia, and the Asia-Pacific during the second half of the twentieth century. His work engages with a range of themes, including urbanization, late industrialization, transnational flows of ideas and capital, social history, and global shipping and capitalism. His research examines multifaceted China-Japan economic, technological, and social interactions since the 1950s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Former Graduate Student Affiliates\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n \n
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\n Alexandrina Agloro\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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USC Center for Japanese Religions and Culture Andrew W. Mellon Foundation John E. Sawyer Seminars on “Critical Mixed-Race Studies: A Transpacific Approach”
\n<\/a>Dissertation Fellow, 2013-2014
\nAnnenberg School for Communication and Journalism
\nPh.D. candidate
\n\u2014<\/p>\n

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Alexandrina Agloro<\/strong> was a Ph.D. candidate in Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California and holds an MA in Ethnic Studies (Critical Race and Resistance Studies) from the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University.\u00a0 She is interested in the possibilities of the decolonial imaginary using digital media as an emancipatory tool.\u00a0 Her research interests include technological access and agency in communities of color, digital racial formation, critical media pedagogy, and mixed race studies.<\/p>\n

Current Affiliation:\u00a0She is an Assistant Professor of Science, Technology, and Innovation in the Borderlands at the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Jillian Brandt\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Department of History
\n\u2014<\/p>\n

Jillian Brandt<\/strong> grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She received her B.A. in History and East Asian Studies from Bryn Mawr College in 2010. After undergraduate, she attended the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies. She received her M.A. in East Asian Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Alberta in 2013. Jillian entered the Ph.D. program in the History department at USC in Fall 2013. Her research interests include gender and sexuality in the Nara and Heian periods, particularly the political agency of women and marriage politics within the Fujiwara clan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Kristina Buhrman\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Department of History
\nPh.D. 2012
\n\u2014<\/p>\n

Kristina Buhrman<\/strong> grew up in upstate New York, and has always been interested in how individuals comprehend and communicate about the world. In undergraduate studies, this led her to a B.A. in Linguistics and Cognitive Science at Cornell University. At USC, this has led her to research the histories of science, religion and the environment in Japan. Her dissertation “The Stars and the State: Astronomy, Astrology, and the Politics of Natural Knowledge in Early Medieval Japan” covers how the desire for reliable information about the world drove not only the development of an independent tradition of Onmy\u014dd\u014d in Heian-period Japan, but also ironically created doubt about the reliability of interpretations of the cosmos.<\/p>\n

Current Affiliation:\u00a0\u00a0Assistant Professor of Religion, Florida State University (Fall 2013 ~ present)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Victoria Davis\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures
\n\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Originally from Ohio, Victoria Davis<\/strong> graduated Elon University in 2009 with a B.A. in Political Science and International Relations. Victoria pursued further research at Tohoku University on a 2009 Fulbright Fellows Grant, thereafter completing an M.Phil in International Relations from the University of St Andrews in 2012. Prior to joining the USC East Asian Languages and Cultures Ph.D program in the fall of 2016, Victoria spent several years working in the defense contracting industry in Washington, D.C. Her primary research interests include medieval Japanese literature (particularly setsuwa<\/em>\u00a0tales), visual culture, and the construction and reproduction of discourses of power. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Current Affiliation: Graduate Student at UCLA (Fall 2019-present)\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Mike Dillon\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Critical Studies,\u00a0School of Cinematic Arts
\nPh.D. 2014
\n\u2014<\/p>\n

Mike Dillon<\/strong> was raised in Kumamoto, and later Tokyo, Japan.\u00a0 He received his BA in East Asian Area Studies and Critical Studies at the School of Cinematic Arts, both at USC.\u00a0 He continued with Critical Studies for his MA and Ph.D. studies.\u00a0 He was a Japan Foundation fellow in 2011-2012 and spent a year conducting research in Tokyo.\u00a0 His dissertation addresses how various entertainment genres, such as yakuza and espionage films, engage contemporary social and political issues in Japan, such as illegal immigration and national security.<\/p>\n

Current Affiliation: Lecturer, California State University, Fullerton (Spring 2014 ~ present)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Jesse Drian\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures
\n\u2014<\/p>\n

Jesse Drian<\/strong> was born and raised in Goshen, New York. He received a B.A. in East Asian Studies with high honors from Haverford College, and then continued his studies, receiving an M.A. in the Regional Studies: East Asia department at Harvard University. Jesse is interested in the intersections between Buddhism, literature, and material\/visual culture in premodern Japan, particularly through the lens of ritual and performance. Jesse is also interested in issues related to representation, and the ways in which people connect themselves and others with Buddhist deities and sacred texts. His primary research interests are premodern Japanese Buddhism, literature, and material\/visual culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Gesshin Greenwood\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Gesshin Greenwood<\/strong> received a BA from Wesleyan University. She spent five years studying Buddhism and training as a Zen nun in Japan. She is interested in feminism, women’s communities, the history of Soto Zen, and the codification of authority through lineage. She is publishing a book on Zen practice with Wisdom Publications called Bow First Ask Questions Later,\u00a0<\/em>to be released Spring 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

Current Affiliation: Lecturer, Institute of Buddhist Studies, Berkeley (from 2019)<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Nadia Kanagawa\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Department of History
\n\u2014<\/p>\n

Born in San Diego, and raised in St. Louis, Nadia Kanagawa<\/strong> graduated from Yale with a B.A. in History. She then received a Richard U. Light Fellowship and moved to Yokohama, Japan to study at the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies for 10 months. After completing the IUC program, Nadia moved to Tokyo and worked at Google in Japan for three years before returning to the US and to academia in the fall of 2011. Her research interests include early state formation in Japan, immigration from the Korean peninsula to Japan in the 6th and 7th centuries, and archaeology.<\/p>\n

Current Affiliation: Assistant Professor of History and Asian Studies at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina (from 2018)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Ichigo Mina Kaneko\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture
\n\u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Ichigo Mina Kaneko<\/strong> grew up in Santa Barbara, California, and received her B.S. in Media, Culture, and Communication from New York University in 2011. After graduating\u00a0 from NYU, she worked at\u00a0The New Yorker\u00a0<\/em>magazine as Covers Associate and TOON Books as Associate Editor and Foreign Rights Manager for several years. She is currently a doctoral candidate in USC’s Comparative Media and Culture program. Her research interests include surrealist fiction in postwar Japanese literature, manga, and cinema, as well as translation studies, gender and sexuality studies, postcolonial theory, psychoanalytic and affect theory.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Sachiko Kawai\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Department of History
\n\u2014<\/p>\n

Sachiko Kawai<\/strong> grew up in the city of Matsuyama in Ehime Prefecture, Japan, and received a B.A. from Tsuru University in Yamanashi Prefecture. She received an M.A. in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) at Cal State Los Angeles and two M.A.s (in East Asian Languages & Cultures and in History) at USC, before becoming a Ph.D. student in the Department of History at USC. She is currently studying as a foreign researcher at the University of Tokyo. Her research interests include the history of women and gender in premodern Japan.<\/p>\n

Current Affiliation: Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Southern California<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Amanda Kennell\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures
\n\u2014<\/p>\n

Amanda Kennell<\/strong> received her Ph.D. in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at USC. Her dissertation, Alice in Evasion, examines the vast variety of Japanese adaptations of Lewis Carroll\u2019s Alice in Wonderland novels. She also studies how new technologies such as 3D scanners can be used in the humanities to improve research and spread scholars\u2019 work to wider audiences. Kennell was awarded the 2015 William E. Brigman Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Paper for \u201cOrigin and Ownership from Ballet to Anime,\u201d which is forthcoming from\u00a0The Journal of Popular Culture<\/em>. She has been awarded ACE-Nikaido, Barbara F. Inamoto and Nippon Foundation fellowships. She earned an M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania with a thesis entitled, \u201cFights Like a Girl:\u00a0Kite<\/em>\u00a0as a new direction for female action heroes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Current Affiliation: Clinical Assistant Professor of Japanese Studies at the University at Buffalo<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Matthew Keller\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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School of Religion
\n\u2014<\/p>\n

Matthew Keller<\/strong> grew up in Kokomo, Indiana. He received a B.A. in History, with a minor in Asian Studies, from Hope College of Holland, Michigan in 2012. He then continued to Yale Divinity School where he received a M.A. of Asian Religions in 2014. Matthew then studied at the Inter-University Center for Japanese Studies in Yokohama during the 2014-2015 academic year. His research interests include premodern Japanese religion and literature, with particular interest in the depiction of religious beliefs in nikki<\/em> and folklore literature<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Lisa Kochinski\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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School of Religion
\n\u2014<\/p>\n

Lisa Kochinski<\/strong> grew up overseas and has lived in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. She received her BA in Asian Studies in 2010 from the University of Hawai\u02bbi, and is currently completing her MA at Kyushu University. Her thesis explores the reasons for the transfer of the deity Hachiman from Usa Shrine to T\u014ddaiji in 749. Her main area of research is premodern Japanese religion, particularly the interaction between Buddhism and kami cults. Other research interests include mountain religions, pilgrimage, and material and visual culture. When she\u2019s not studying, Lisa likes to hike, practice Tai Chi, and play the piano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Tatyana “Tanya” Kostochka\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Department of Philosophy
\n\u2014<\/p>\n

Tatyana Kostochka<\/strong> was born in Novosibirsk, Russia and raised in various places including (but not limited to) the aforementioned city of Novosibirsk and Champaign, Illinois. She received her BA in East Asian Studies from Brandeis University in 2011 and went on to an MA in Philosophy from Northern Illinois University, which she received in Spring, 2013. Tanya\u2019s research is divided between moral psychology and Buddhist philosophy. In moral psychology, her work primarily concerns moods and emotions. In Buddhist philosophy, she is particularly interested in medieval Japanese Buddhism. Tanya received her PhD from the Department of Philosophy at the University of Southern California and is currently Assistant Professor of philosophy at Ashoka University. In her free time, Tanya draws comics for Daily Nous, a philosophy news\/blog site.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Elinor Lindeman\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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School of Religion
\n\u2014<\/p>\n

Elinor Lindeman<\/strong> is a PhD student in the School of Religions. She graduated with a B.A. in Japanese and History from the Ohio State University in 2019 and graduated with a M.A. in International and Regional Studies with a focus in Japanese studies from the University of Michigan in 2021. Her research interests are in early medieval Japanese Buddhism and women\u2019s studies; she is particularly interested in how women and their communities influenced the religious landscape both within and outside of established institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Ana Paulina Lee\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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USC Cente<\/a>r for Japanese Religions and Culture Andrew W. Mellon Foundation John E. Sawyer Seminars on “Critical Mixed-Race Studies: A Transpacific Approach”<\/a>
\nDissertation Fellow, 2013-2014<\/p>\n

Department of Comparative Literature
\nPh.D. 2014
\n\u2014<\/p>\n

Ana Paulina Lee<\/strong>\u00a0received her Ph.D. in the Department of Comparative\u00a0Literature at the University of Southern California in May 2014 and holds an MA from New York University in Hispanic Literatures and Cultures. Her research focuses primarily on the Chinese diaspora and coolie labor migrations to Brazil and Cuba during the 18th and 19th centuries and the influence of that presence on literary canons and in visual culture. She\u00a0is also interested in how these economic and social transitions affected the\u00a0imperial aesthetics of the Portuguese and Spanish Empires in the Americas.<\/p>\n

Current Affiliation:\u00a0Assistant Professor of Latin American and Iberian Cultures,\u00a0Columbia University (from Fall 2014)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Nicolette Lee\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures
\n\u2014<\/p>\n

Nicolette Lee<\/strong> grew up in a very small town in northern New Jersey, and received her B.A. in East Asian Studies from Bryn Mawr College. She spent a year in Yokohama, Japan and studied at the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies. After this program, she continued on to earn her master\u2019s degree at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver with an interest in nuns and convents of the early modern period. She received an MA in East Asian Languages and Cultures from USC in 2017. Her research interests include premodern Japanese Buddhism, social history, and women\u2019s agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Brooke McCallum\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
\n\n \n

Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture
\n\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Brooke McCallum<\/strong> was born in the Pacific Northwest and grew up between Washington state, Texas, and Utah. Having first encountered the ongoing discourse on military occupation and war memory in Okinawa as a high school exchange student, Brooke returned to the prefecture to conduct ethnographic research before graduating\u00a0magna cum laude\u00a0<\/em>with a B.A. in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University in 2016. As a doctoral student at USC, she engaged in an exploration of traumatic memory and identity formation as represented in popular literature and post-war media.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Victoria Rose Montrose\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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School of Religion
\n\u2014<\/p>\n

Victoria Rose Montrose<\/strong> grew up in Southern California and attended UC San Diego for her undergraduate degree, where she majored in political science with a minor in history. In her senior year, she studied abroad in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa with a Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship. After graduating, Tori spent two years in Kumamoto City, Japan as a Japanese Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme participant. In 2011, she received her M.A. from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. Her Master\u2019s thesis, \u201cShinnyo-en: An Early History,\u201d was completed with honors. She began her doctoral studies at USC in 2011. Her dissertation, “Making the Modern Priest: Buddhist Universities and Clerical Education in Meiji Japan” focuses on shifts to clerical education with the emergence of Buddhist universities in Meiji Japan. Her primary research interests include contemporary Japanese Buddhism, Buddhist education, the history of higher education, new religious movements, and the sociology of religion.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Wakae Nakane\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Cinema and Media Studies, School of Cinematic Arts
\n\u2014<\/p>\n

Wakae Nakane<\/strong> received her BA in Art History and MA in Cinema Studies from Nagoya University, Japan. She joined the Division of Cinema and Media Studies at the USC School of Cinematic Arts as a PhD student in 2019. Her research focuses on Japanese feminist documentary, developing questions around feminist historiography and promoting previously marginalized woman filmmakers. She has been an active participant in Japan\u2019s independent film scene, working at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival and a local art theater in her hometown of Nagoya. Her publications include \u201cConstructing an Intimate Sphere Through Her Own Female Body: Naomi Kawase\u2019s Documentary Films\u201d in\u00a0Female Authorship and the Documentary Image<\/i>\u00a0(eds. Boel Ulfsdotter and Anna Backman Rogers, 2018) and\u00a0Eizogaku\u00a0<\/i>(in Japanese), and \u201cFemale Performers as Authors: Documentary Film\u00a0Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974<\/i>\u00a0and the Women\u2019s Liberation Movement\u201d in\u00a0JunCture\u00a0<\/i>(in Japanese).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Lina Nie\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Department of History
\n\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Nie Lina<\/strong> received her B.A. in Chinese History and Japanese Studies at the University of Hong Kong and her A.M. in the Regional Studies East Asia program at Harvard University. At USC she is studied the history of middle period China and medieval Japan. Her major research interests include world history, cultural history, and gender studies. After receiving her PhD from USC, Lina accepted a position at the history department of Texas A&M in College Station as an Assistant Professor (tenure track) teaching Japanese and Chinese History.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Kathryn Page-Lippsmeyer\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
\n\n \n

Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures
\n\u2014<\/p>\n

Born in Sacramento, California, Kathryn Page-Lippsmeyer<\/strong> spent her formative years in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas.\u00a0 She earned her first B.A. in Modern Literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1997. After graduation she spent seven years in various administrative and project management positions and returned to academia to earn her second B.A. in Asian Studies from the University of Texas, Austin, where she also earned an M.A. in Asian Studies with an emphasis on Modern Japanese Literature.\u00a0 Her dissertation is an interdisciplinary literary and visual studies investigation of the contradictions within the aesthetic space created by the longest running Japanese science fiction magazine\u2019s cover illustrators and how those inconsistencies affected the function and articulation of the \u201cposthuman\u201d. More broadly, she is interested in the relationships between \u201chigh\u201d and \u201cgenre\u201d literature and subculture, between image and imagination, and between fan and genre as it relates to Japanese science fiction, contemporary fiction, cinema, and digital texts. Other current research interests include investigating multi-author fiction made possible by digital technologies, with an emphasis on the architectures of digital communities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Current Affiliation: Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Southern California<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Kirsten Seuffert\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
\n\n \n

Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures
\n\u2014<\/p>\n

Kirsten Seuffert<\/strong> grew up in Central Pennsylvania and received her B.A. in English from the Scholars Program at the Pennsylvania State University. After a decade working in online media and academic publishing and three years of teaching in Japan, she changed course (thankfully) and received her M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations. She is currently a PhD student and Provost Fellow in USC\u2019s Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures focusing on postwar Japanese cinema and visual culture. Her research interests include avant-garde and pink cinema, theories of embodiment, gender and sexuality, and \u201cresistance\u201d widely defined. In her free time she enjoys travel and listening to very, very loud music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Dan Sherer\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Department of History
\n\u2014<\/p>\n

Dan Sherer<\/strong> received his B.A. and M.A. from the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at USC, before becoming a Ph.D. student in the Department of History.<\/p>\n

Current Affiliation: Professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Emily Warren\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
\n\n \n

Department of History
\n\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Emily Warren<\/strong> received her B.A. and M.A. in East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Southern California after researching twelfth century epidemics and disease. Over the course of her undergraduate and graduate work, she studied at Meiji University, Nanzan University, and Himeji Dokkyo University. In 2014, she began working with the Mainichi Shimbun as an assistant correspondent covering international news, and in 2016, she returned to USC for her doctoral studies in premodern Japanese history. Her current research interest is the history of premodern Japanese food. In her spare time, she cooks and writes fantasy novels<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n\n<\/div>\n\n \n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/div>\n \n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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