Japan

Valerie J. Cranmer

Valerie J. Cranmer

Postdoctoral Research Scholar at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute; Lecturer of Modern Japanese History in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures

Office:  602 Kent Hall
Office Hours: M, R 10 am-12:00 pm and by appointment
Phone Number: 602 Kent Hall
Email: vjc2122@columbia.edu

Educational Background

PhD: University of St. Andrews, 2026
MA: Norwich University, 2021
BA: Colorado College, 2010

Classes Taught

HSEA GU4847 Modern Japan

Research Interests

Modern Japanese history, transnational and comparative history, war and society, history of East Asia, gender and the military

Valerie J. Cranmer is a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute and Lecturer in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University. Her research explores the intersections of the military and society, through interdisciplinary lens, such as popular culture and gender. Broadly, she is interested in the history of conflict and colonialism in East Asia in the modern era. She is completing a scholarly monograph, tentatively entitled Enabling Abuse: The Imperial Japanese Army’s Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Organization and Its Place in Global Military History.

Selected Publications

“In Judgment of Unit 731: A Comparative Study of Medical War Crimes Trials After World War II.” Journal of American-East Asian Relations 30. No. 1 (2023): 32-60.

Christina Yi

Christina Yi

Associate Professor of Japanese Literature

Office: 408 Kent Hall
Email: csy2103@columbia.edu

Educational Background:

BA: University of Virginia (’05)
MA: Columbia University (’09)
PhD: Columbia University (’13)

Classes Taught:

AHUM UN3830 Colloquium on Modern East Asian Texts
JPNS GU4008 Readings in Classical Japanese
JPNS GR9020 Graduate Seminar in Modern Japanese Literature

Research Interests:

Christina Yi is a scholar of modern and contemporary Japanese literature and culture, with a research focus on issues of postcoloniality, genre and narrative theory, language politics, and cultural studies. Her first monograph, Colonizing Language: Cultural Production and Language Politics in Modern Japan and Korea (Columbia University Press, 2018), investigated how linguistic nationalism and national identity intersect in the formation of modern literary canons through an examination of Japanese-language cultural production by Korean and Japanese writers from the 1930s through the 1950s. The research and writing of this project was funded through generous grants from the Northeast Asia Council of AAS, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), among others. Her current research project investigates the discursive formation and theoretical limits of “repatriation literature” (hikiage bungaku) through an examination of fiction, essays, and memoirs on the subject of repatriation to Japan, by both Japanese and non-Japanese writers. This project was funded by a SSHRC Insight Grant and Japan Foundation fellowship. Professor Yi is also an active translator, and was a recipient of the William F. Sibley Memorial Translation Prize for her translation of Kim Saryang’s “Pegasus” (Tenma).

Selected Publications:

Sole author: Imperial Testaments: Repatriation Narratives in Modern Japan (advance contract at Columbia University Press)

Co-editor: Passing, Posing, Persuasion: Cultural Production and Coloniality in Japan’s East Asia Empire (University of Hawai’i Press, 2023)

Translator: Kim Sŏkpŏm, Death of a Crow (Karasu no shi; Seoul Selection, 2022)

Co-editor: “Zainichi Literature and Film” in Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature and Culture 12 (2019)

Sole author: Colonizing Language: Cultural Production and Language Politics in Modern Japan and Korea (Columbia University Press, 2018)

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.