Erica Kanesaka
I am a writer, researcher, and Assistant Professor of English at Emory University. An interdisciplinary scholar, I specialize in Asian American literary and cultural studies, with a focus on the racial and sexual politics of kawaii and cuteness. My other areas of interest include childhood studies, transnational feminisms, feminist disability studies, and feminist science and technology studies.
I am currently at work on two book projects: The first, an academic monograph, explores how children’s books and toys have mediated feelings about race, sex, and gender between Japan and the United States from the late nineteenth century to the present. The second, a collection of essays written for a general audience, mixes cultural criticism with personal narrative to reflect on the resonances of kawaii and cuteness for Asian American feminist politics.
My research has appeared in scholarly journals including the Journal of Asian American Studies, positions: asia critique, and Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. My public-facing writing can be found in Asian American Writers’ Workshop, Avidly: Los Angeles Review of Books, Ms. Magazine, Public Books, and elsewhere.
At Emory, I teach courses that include “Imagining Asian America,” “Asian American Women Writers,” “Cute Studies,” “Techno-Orientalism,” “Toy Stories,” and “Transpacific Femininities.” Together with my “Cute Studies” course, I maintain the website CuteStudies.com.
I am also a contributor to the digital humanities project “Kawaii in Japan & Beyond: Theory & Praxis,” hosted by Japan Past & Present. Included in this project is my documentary Kawaii Beyond: Kawaii Culture in Atlanta, Georgia.
I received an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from New York University and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Prior to coming to Emory, I was a 2021–2022 Postdoctoral Fellow at the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women at Brown University.
For more: Research | CV
Contact me: erica.kanesaka@emory.edu
Agent: Jade Wong-Baxter at Frances Goldin
Selected Public Writing
