curriculum vitae

  • 2020 - present — PhD English (ongoing)

    • McMaster University, Department of English and Cultural Studies

    • Supervisor: Dr. Amber Dean

    2019 - 2020 — Creative Writing Certificate

    • Simon Fraser University, The Writer’s Studio Online

    • Mentor: Jen Sookfong Lee

    2017 - 2019 — MA Socio-cultural Studies of Health

    • Queen’s University, School of Kinesiology and Health Studies

    • Supervisor: Dr. Jeffrey Masuda

    2010 - 2014 — BA English

    • University of Victoria, Department of English

    • Minor: Political Science


  • SCHOLARSHIPS

    • 2023 – 2024 — Japanese Canadian Legacy Scholarship

    • 2023 — RGF Integrated Wealth Management James E. Rogers Leadership Scholarship

    • 2021 – 2024 — SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Doctoral Scholarship

    • 2020 – 2021 — Ontario Graduate Scholarship

    • 2020 – 2021 — McMaster Entrance Scholarship

    • 2020 – 2021 — McMaster Graduate Scholarship

    • 2018 – 2019 — Ontario Graduate Scholarship

    • 2017 – 2018 — Queen’s Graduate Scholarship

    AWARDS & DISTINCTIONS

    • “‘They’re beautiful and they’re white’: Cherry Blossoms, Nikkei Aesthetics, and Settler Colonial Memory in Paueru Gai”

      • Canadian Sociological Association

      • Montréal, Quebec

      • June 18, 2024

    • “(Re)historicizing the Roots of Powell Street Festival: The Story of Tonari Gumi and the Downtown Eastside Residents Association

      • Canadian Historical Association (at Congress)

      • McGill University, Montréal, Quebec

      • June 17, 2024

    • “The Legacies and Limits of Asian Canadian Activism: Complicating the Myth of Powell Street Festival”

      • Association of Asian American Studies

      • Seattle, WA, United States

      • April 27, 2024

    • “Returning to the Past its Gaps and Other Disorientations for a Haunting Methodology”

      • with Kara Granzow and Amber Dean

      • Canadian Sociological Association (at Congress)

      • York University, Toronto, Ontario

      • June 1, 2023

    • “‘I just find it interesting, how Japanese Canadians write letters’: Reflections on dear community and c/o”

      • Creative Counter-Memorializations: A Symposium/Gathering

      • University of King’s College, Kjipuktuk (Halifax), Nova Scotia

      • November 25, 2022

    • “‘The Balmoral died, the Regent died…’: Death, rumours, and resistance in Single Room Occupancy hotels of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside”

      • Canadian Association of Geographers Annual General Meeting & Conference

      • University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Manitoba

      • May 28, 2019

    • “‘We’re writing a eulogy’: Beyond the loss of Single Room Occupancy hotels in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside”

      • Loss: A Symposium

      • McGill University, Montréal, Québec

      • May 10, 2019

    • “‘In that ‘zact same room’: The everydayness of life and death in the SROs of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside”

      • BC Studies Conference

      • Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, British Columbia

      • May 2, 2019

    • “Public health, the work of the dead, and remaining in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside”

      • Canadian Association of Geographers (Ontario Division) Conference

      • Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario

      • October 21, 2017


  • BOOK REVIEWS, REPORTS, & THESES


    CREATIVE WRITING & MULTIMEDIA

    PUBLIC TALKS & PARTICIPATORY WORK

    • Panelist, “Beyond the Disciplinary Narratives of the Colonial Settler State and Empire: New Critical Directions and Methodologies”

      • Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia

      • February 7, 2023

    • Podcast guest, InTanglement, Episode 1 - “To Walk Alongside One Another: Messy Tangles of Self and Society”

      • Cinevolution Media Arts Society

      • August 2022

    • Panelist, “I Know We’ll Meet Again: Correspondence and the Forced Dispersal of Japanese Canadians”

      • University of British Columbia, via Zoom

      • March 1, 2022

    • Panelist, Talking the Walk: What’s At Stake

      • Powell Street Festival Society and 360 Riot Walk, via Zoom

      • July 13, 2021

    • Host,“The Paueru Gai Dialogues #4: Old Roots and New Relationships on Indigenous Lands”

      • Powell Street Festival Society, via Zoom

      • April 29, 2021

    • Panelist, “Antiracism in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside”

      • Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association, via Zoom

      • April 10, 2021

    • Host, “The Paueru Gai Dialogues #4: Old Roots and New Relationships on Indigenous Lands”

      • Powell Street Festival Society, via Zoom

      • April 29, 2021

    • Reader, “Readings from the Writer’s Studio”

      • Vancouver Writer’s Festival, via Zoom

      • November 1, 2020

    • Participant, Grounds for Goodness (Downtown Eastside)

      • Heart of the City Festival, via Zoom

      • October 31 to November 8, 2020

    • Presenter, Birmingham City University Physical Education and School Sport Summer Exchange Course

      • Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario

      • June 21, 2019

    • Speaker, 30th Anniversary of Japanese Canadian Redress and 60th Anniversary of The Bulletin Geppo

      • Tonari Gumi, Vancouver, British Columbia

      • December 9, 2018

    • Panelist, “VOICES,” VOICES: A Multimedia Exhibit

      • Isabel Bader Centre Art and Media Lab, Kingston, Ontario

      • March 8, 2018

    • Speaker, “Don’t condemn Chinatown to the same fate suffered by Vancouver’s Pauerugai”

      • speech adapted for print

      • published in The Volcano, May 31, 2017

    • Panelist, “Being A Good Neighbour in the Downtown Eastside” (Realms of Refuge)

      • Heart of the City Festival, Vancouver, British Columbia

      • October 21, 2016

    • Speaker, Hapa-Palooza: Mixed Voices Raised

      • Hapa-Palooza Festival, Vancouver, British Columbia

      • September 24, 2014

    • Research Assistant (2024-2025)

      • Re-Neighbouring as Reconciliation: Indigenous Stories of Resistance

      • SSHRC

    • Research Assistant (2022-2024)

      • Settler Colonial Place-Making in Alberta: Sexualized Violence, Extractivism, and Cowboy Culture

      • SSHRC

    • Research Assistant (2017-2018)

      • The “Right to Remain” of Single Room Occupancy Dwellers in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

      • SSHRC

    • Research Assistant (2017-2018)

      • A SHARED Future: Achieving Strength, Health and Autonomy, through Renewable Energy Development for the Future

      • CIHR


  • SESSIONAL WORK & TEACHING FELLOWSHIPS

    • 2025 (Jun - Aug) — Teaching Fellow, McMaster University (ENG 1G03: Making and Unmaking Literary Traditions)

    • 2025 (Jan - Apr) — Sessional Lecturer, Simon Fraser University (GA 303: Selected Topics in Global Japanese Studies)

    TEACHING ASSISTANTSHIPS

    • McMaster University, Department of English and Cultural Studies

      • 2024 (Jan - Apr) — Teaching Assistant, ENG 2C03: Contemporary Canadian Fiction

      • 2024 (Jan - Apr) — Teaching Assistant, ENG 3NH3: Narratives of Health

      • 2023 (Sept - Dec) — Teaching Assistant, ENG 2CL3: Canadian Literature of Dissent and Social Justice

      • 2023 (May - Jun) — Teaching Assistant, ENG 1F03: The Written World

      • 2023 (Jan - Apr) — Senior Teaching Assistant, ENG 1CS3: Studying Culture: A Critical Introduction

      • 2021 (Sept - Dec) — Senior Teaching Assistant, ENG 1F03: The Written World

      • 2021 (Jan - Apr) — Teaching Assistant, ENG 2CC3: Settler Colonialism and Writing in Canada

      • 2021 (Jan - Apr) — Writing Tutor, English and Cultural Studies Department

      • 2020 (Sept - Dec) — Teaching Assistant, ENG 3GG3: Theories of Decolonization and Resistance

    • Queen’s University, School of Kinesiology and Health Studies

      • 2019 (Jan - Apr) — Teaching Assistant, HLTH 101: Social Determinants of Health

      • 2019 (Jan - Apr) — Teaching Assistant, HLTH 102: Personal Health and Wellness

      • 2018 (Jan - Apr) — Teaching Assistant, HLTH 305: Fundamentals of Health Policy

      • 2018 (Jan - Apr) — Teaching Assistant, HLTH 102: Personal Health and Wellness

      • 2017 (Sept - Dec) — Teaching Assistant, HLTH 334: The Politics of Health and Wellness


    GUEST LECTURES & CLASS VISITS

    • University of British Columbia

      • ACAM Summer Program: Is Asia Vancouver: The Experiences of Asian Canadians in Metro Vancouver, Nicole Yakashiro and Rob Ho (Aug. 3, 2023)

      • HIST 321A/421A: Histories of Death, Dr. Coll Thrush (Nov. 6, 2018)

    • Simon Fraser University

      • URB 620: Urban Communities and Cultures, Dr. Annika Airas (Jun. 5, 2023; Nov. 3, 2023; Sept. 27, 2021)

    • McMaster University

      • ENG 1F03: The Written World, Dr. Ronald Cummings (May 2, 2023)

    • Carleton University

      • CDNS 2301A: Immigrants, Migrants, and Diasporas: There’s No Place Like Home, Dr. Orly Lael Netzer (Feb. 6, 2023)

    • Queen’s University

      • HLTH 334: The Politics of Health and Illness, Dr. Samantha King (Oct. 20, 2020)


  • COMMUNITY & VOLUNTEER WORK

    CONFERENCES & COLLECTIVES

    • The Crew Writing Collective

      • Co-organizer, with Hugh Griffith, Elliott Gish, Rebecca Chan-Gill, Colleen Doty, Judy Dercksen, Anya Wyers, Frederic Sahyouni, and Uttara Krishnadas

      • 2021 - present

    • Critical Japanese Canadian/Japanese American/Transnational Scholars (Emergent Group)

      • Co-organizer, with Kirsten McAllister

      • 2021 - present

    • “An Open Letter from the Japanese Canadian / Nikkei Community Against Beedie’s Proposed Development at 105 Keefer”

      • Co-organizer, with Kathy Shimizu and Haruho Kubota

      • May 27, 2021

    • Beyond the Disciplinary Narratives of the Colonial Settler State and Empire: New Critical Directions and Methodologies

      • Co-organizer, with Nicole Yakashiro, Laura Ishiguro, and lead organizer Kirsten McAllister

      • February 7, 2023

    • Kikiai Collaborative (previously Japanese Canadian Young Leaders of Vancouver, 2014-2016)

      • Founding member

    • Japanese Canadian Young Leaders Conference

      • Co-organizer, with support from the National Association of Japanese Canadians

      • September 19-21, 2014, Vancouver, British Columbia

    DEPARTMENTAL

    • Vox Populi Committee Member, Graduate Caucus

      • Department of English and Cultural Studies

      • McMaster University, 2020-2021

    • Teaching Assistant Committee Member, Graduate Caucus

      • Department of English and Cultural Studies

      • McMaster University, 2020-2021

    • 2023 — Heritage Language for Beginners, Part III, Japanese for Nikkei

    • 2022 — Heritage Language for Beginners, Part II, Japanese for Nikkei

    • 2021 — Heritage Language for Beginners, Part I, Japanese for Nikkei

    • 2019 — Writing Pedagogy Institute, Centre for Teaching and Learning, Queen’s University (partial completion)

    • 2019 — Professional University Teaching and Learning Workshop Series, Centre for Teaching and Learning, Queen’s University (partial completion)

    • 2017 — Tri-Council Policy Statement (TCPS) 2 CORE Training Certificate

    • 2016 — MATH 215: Introduction to Statistics, Athabasca University (Grade: A)


  • English — Speak: Fluent, Read: Fluent, Write: Fluent

    French —Speak: Moderate, Read: Moderate, Write: Moderate

    Japanese — Speak Developing, Read: Developing, Write: Developing