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Kazue Harada
Associate Professor
German, Russian, Asian, and Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures

Kazue Harada

Contact Info

513-529-3365
Irvin Hall 152

Education

  • 2015 - Ph.D. - Washington University in St. Louis, MO, Japanese Language and Literature (and Women, Gender, Sex, and Sexuality Certificate)
    • Dissertation Title: “Japanese Women’s Science Fiction: Posthuman Bodies and the Representation of Gender.”
  • 2003 - M.A. - University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Modern Japanese Literature
    Thesis Title: “Good Bad Girls: Male Writers’ Romanticization of Prostitutes in the Postwar Era.”
  • 1996 - B.A. - Hiroshima Women’s University (Currently Prefectural University of Hiroshima), Hiroshima, Japan, Japanese Literature and Language.

Teaching and Research Interests

  • Modern and contemporary Japanese literature
  • Japanese popular media
  • Japanese and East Asian civilization
  • Gender and sexuality in East Asia
  • Race and ethnicity critical theories in East Asia
  • Speculative and science fiction
  • Science, technology, and environment in literature
  • Feminism, gender, queer theories, race, and ethnicity in literature and multimedia

Courses Taught

  • JPN 101: Elementary Japanese
  • JPN 102: Elementary Japanese 
  • JPN 201: Second Year Japanese
  • JPN 260.C: Introduction to Japanese Civilization
  • JPN 260.E: Japanese Popular Culture
  • JPN 301: Third Year Japanese
  • JPN 302: Third Year Japanese 

Selected Publications and Presentations

Books

Book Chapters

  • “Feminist ‘Failed’ Reproductive Future in Speculative Fiction: Ōhara Mariko, Murata Sayaka, and Ueda Sayuri,” in Handbook of Modern and Contemporary Japanese Women Writers, edited by Rebecca Copeland. Tokyo, Japan: MHM Limited, forthcoming.
  • “Cannibalistic Space and Reproduction in Japanese Speculative Fiction” In Fantastical Space in Contemporary Japanese Literature, edited by Mina Qiao. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2022: 71-93.

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

  • “Visible Matters: Radiation in Kobayashi’s Erika’s Multimedia Project in the Post-Fukushima Japan,” Japanese Studies, 2021, 41(1): 1-21. DOI: 10.1080/10371397.2020.1847637.
  • “Defamiliarizing Women’s (Re)productive Bodies and Imagining a New Kinship in Shirai Yumiko’s Wombs,” Japanese Language and Literature, October 2018, 52 (2): 277-314.

Presentations

  • "(In)visibility of Biological Warfare, Colonial Subjects, and Japanese Masculinity in Science in Ueda Sayari's The King Of Ruin," Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs, October 2021, Online.
  • Invited Talk, “(Re)productive Futures and Defamiliarizing Womanhood in Contemporary Japanese Women’s Speculative Fiction,” February 2021, University of Turin, Italy, Online.
  • Invited Talk, “Reengineering (Re)productive Futures in Japanese Women's Science Fiction,” September 2020, Japan Foundation, Toronto, Online.
  • “(In)visibility of Biological Warfare, Colonial Subjects, and Japanese Masculinity in Science Fiction,” The Conference of Association for Asian Studies in Asia, September 2020, Online.
  • "(In)visibility of Biological Warfare, Colonial Subjects, and Japanese Masculinity in Science Fiction," The Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, January 2020, New College of Florida.
  • "Visual Mattering: Radiation in Post-Fukushima Japan in Erika Kobayashi's magna Luminous," The Miami Comics Scholars' Spring Symposium, May 2019, Miami University.
  • Invited Symposium, "Reengineering (Re)productive Future in Japanese Women's Science Fiction," The Woman in the Story: Female Protagonism in Japanese Narratives, March 2019, UCLA.
  • “Imagining Beyond X/Y in Japanese Women’s Science Fiction,” Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs, October 2018, Metropolitan State University.
  • “Visual Matters: Radiation in Kobayashi’s Erika’s Multimedia Project in the Post-Fukushima Japan,” The Nonhuman in Japanese Culture and Society: Spirits, Animal, Technology, September 2018, University of Victoria, Canada.

Selected Grants and Awards

  • The Hampton Award, Miami University (Summer 2022)
  • The Northeast Asia Council (NEAC), Japan Grant Award (Spring 2022)
  • PREP Award, Miami University (2018)

Professional Organization Memberships

  • Association for Asian Studies
  • Association for Teachers of Japanese
  • Science Fiction Research Association
  • Midwest Japan Seminar
  • Society for Ecocriticism Studies in Japan
  • The Association for the Study of Literature and Environment in Japan 

Languages

  • English (near-native)
  • Japanese (native)
  • Mandarin (studying)
  • Korean (studying)