Japan

Hyoseak (Stephen) Choi

Hyoseak (Stephen) Choi

Adjunct Lecturer, Postdoctoral Research Scholar at the Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture

Office: 614 Kent Hall
Office Hours: F 1:00- 3:00
Email:  hc2963@columbia.edu

Educational Background

BA: Saint Mary’s University
MA: University of Toronto/Columbia University
PhD: Columbia University

Classes Taught

AHUM UN3830: Colloquium on Modern East Asian Texts
EAAS GU4150: Childhoods in Modern Japanese Literature

Research Interests

Modern Japanese Literature, Publishing Culture, Childhood, Social Theory, Translation

Stephen Choi received his PhD from the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia
University in May, 2024. His research focuses on the diverse iterations of “childhood” that is represented
in literary works, as well as the role that the idea of “childhood” plays in the production, distribution,
and reception of texts. Exploring the many social and political functions of childhood utilized for
legitimating ideologies, proliferating propaganda, and promoting policies, the research aims to gain a
deeper understanding of existing socio-political narratives and consider possible future narratives that
can serve to protect actual children. He is currently working on book projects in both English and
Japanese.

Mihoko Yagi

Mihoko Yagi

Lecturer in Japanese

Office: 516 Kent Hall
Office Hours: Wed & Thur 3-4 PM
Phone: (212) 854-3594
Email: my2891@columbia.edu

Educational Background

Ed.M: TESOL, Boston University
BA: Literature, Waseda University

Classes Taught

JPNS 1002 Introductory Japanese B
JPNS 1101 First Year Japanese I

Research Interests

Language Pedagogy

Mihoko Yagi joined the Japanese Language Program at Columbia in
2024. She received her BA in literature from Waseda University and her
Ed.M in teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) from
Boston University. Prior to joining Columbia, she taught at Harvard
University and Boston University, where she had extensive experience
of teaching Japanese at various levels. She has also served as a Japanese
language department assistant at DePauw University. She is passionate
about bridging students’ learning in class to the real world.

Takuya Tsunoda

Takuya Tsunoda

Assistant Professor of Japanese Film and Media

Office: 416 Kent Hall
Office Hours: On leave for spring 2022
Phone: (212) 854-5040
Email: tt2101@columbia.edu

Educational Background

BA: Waseda University (’02), Columbia University (’05)
MA: Columbia University (’08)
PhD: Yale University (’15)

Classes Taught

EAAS UN3322 East Asian Cinema
EAAS UN3343 Japanese Contemporary Cinema and Media Culture
EAAS GU4122 Japanese New Wave and Cinematic Modernism
EAAS GU4123 Japanese Documentary Films
EAAS GR6400 Critical Approaches to East Asian Studies: Literary and Cultural Theory
EAAS GR8070 Graduate Seminar in Japanese Cinema and Visual Culture

Research Interests

Japanese cinema and media, educational and science film, industrial cinema, history and theory of audio-visual pedagogy, media archaeology, cinematic modernism, new cinemas of the 1960s, television

Takuya Tsunoda’s primary research centers on the interplay between institutions and media, technologies and socio-cultural practices, science and material culture, and representation and knowledge formations. He is currently at work on a book project about Iwanami Productions, which evolved from a major provider of sponsored educational, science and public relations films into a key player in the new cinemas of the 1960s in Japan. Grounding his research in archival materials, he highlights the historical and theoretical intersection between media-based governmental and civic activities, cross-medial articulation of postwar academicism in Japan, and a postwar struggle over the legacy and meaning of cinematic modernism. Looking beyond the activist logic of political radicalism, his book argues that the crucial root of new cinemas in Japan resided in institutionalized audio-visual pedagogy and image-making practice. This project works towards new transnational parameters that relate the cinematic New Wave to a range of epistemic transformations and changing mediascapes occurring in the period. His recent research interests extend to such topics as various modes of reflexivity, children and media, the emergence of alpine photography and insect ecology, television documentaries as well as the relationship between diegesis and contemporary media cultures.

Prior to joining the Columbia faculty, he taught at Colgate University and the University of Chicago.

Selected Publications
“Taxonomy of Techniques: Visions of Industrial Cinema in Postwar Japan,” in Films That Work Harder: The Circulations of Industrial Cinema (Amsterdam, forthcoming)

“Hani Susumu, Nouvelle Vague in Japan and Processive Cinema,” in A Companion to Japanese Cinema (Blackwell, 2022), pp. 612-638.

“The Living Sea: Okinawa, 1958 and the postwar media Dispositif.” Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema 13:2 (Nov. 2021), pp. 99-117.

“Iwanami Photo Library and Natori Yōnosuke on Photography,” in Mediology in the Transformative Period: Reconfiguration of Art and Media in 1950s Japan (Shinwasha, 2019, in Japanese)

“Index and Deixis: Jinba Isao and Polluted Water Karte,” in Images of Postwar Japan: Pollution, Youth Rebellion, and the Osaka Exhibition (Univ. of Tokyo, 2018, in Japanese)