Gender Scholar Award

The Women's Caucus, housed in the College of Arts and Sciences promotes an academic culture of inclusiveness at Western Michigan University in research, teaching, service and administration.  To support and encourage efforts in this area, the Women’s Caucus offers this award annually for a faculty member who demonstrates excellence in gender-related research and scholarly activities.   

Award winners receive a plaque/award, are honored at the college faculty and staff award ceremony held during the spring semester, and will be asked to present their work publicly during the spring semester at a WMU community event.  In addition, award winners receive $1,000, which is deposited into their departmental WRAP account, which can be spent following university policies for WRAP expenditures.

2022 Recipient Information | Dr. Rika Saito

Dr. Rika Saito is a professor and advisor of Japanese in the Department of World Languages and Literatures at Western Michigan University.

Born and raised in Tokyo, Saito worked there as an editor and journalist specializing in Japanese language education and intercultural communication. She taught Japanese language and literature at the University of Delaware from 2005-07. Saito joined WMU in fall 2007.

Saito has written several articles in Japanese. In addition, her recent publications include:

• Language of Feminine Duty: Articulating Gender, Culture, and Covert Policy in Modern Japan (PeterLang, 2021)
• “Taishō roman no unda feminisuto: Yamada Waka & Kakichi no kyōdo to shisō (Feminists born in the period of Taishō romance: Collaborative thought and work of Yamada Waka & Kakichi) series nos.1-11” Kotoba (2010-2020)
• "Transmissive Feminism: The Evolutive Mind As Displayed in the Overseas Letters of Yamada Kakichi to Yamada Waka" in New perspectives on Japanese Language Learning, Linguistics, and Culture, edited by Kimi Kondo-Brown, et. al. (Honolulu, University of Hawaii, National Foreign Language Resource Center Publications, 2013),163-81.
• "Writing in Female Drag: Gendered Literature and a Woman's Voice" in Japanese Language and Literature, No. 2, Vol. 44 (Fall 2010): 149-77.