The 2016-2017 Academic Year saw the Department of Asian Languages & Literature welcoming four new graduate students.
Benjamin DeTora graduated with a B.A. in Japanese Language & Literature from Boston University and continued on to work as an ALT in the JET Programme in Shikokuchūō City, Ehime, Japan. Prior to arriving at UW, Ben received his M.A. from Washington University in St. Louis and attended the Inter-University-Center for Japanese Language Studies in Yokohama, Japan. His research focus is modern literature and Japanese-language literature of minorities, especially that of the Burakumin, as well as research interests in visual culture, film & media studies, and gender & sexuality studies.
Fatuma Muhamed graduated from the University of California, Irvine in 2015 with a B.A. in Japanese Language and Literature. She is in her first year of her M.A. in Japanese Language & Literature at UW, where she is interested in studying translation, contemporary literature, and Japanese youth culture.
Genevieve Hill received her BA in Japanese from University at Albany, SUNY, and has come to UW to study modern Japanese literature. Genevieve's research interests are in postwar Japanese literature and popular culture, and recently she is particularly interested in researching the grotesque in Japanese literature. Before coming to UW, she lived for two years in a small village in Gunma, Japan while on the JET Program. Outside of her studies, she enjoys teaching, reading, playing and listening to music, drawing, playing with animals, and watching movies and anime.
Ying-Hsiu Chou is a Fulbright Foreign Student from Taiwan. She received her BA in Chinese Literature and MA in Foreign Languages and Literature from National Chung Cheng University. Ying-Hsiu is working with Professor John Chris Hamm in her pursuit of a PhD in Chinese literature. Her research interests focus on modern and contemporary Chinese literature and cinema, with emphasis on genre studies in detective fiction and film. Ying-Hsiu also enjoys teaching Chinese as a foreign/second language, and she had successfully completed the “Teaching Chinese as a Second Language: Summer Program” offered by the Mandarin Training Center at National Taiwan Normal University just before joining our department.