Rika Saito

Professor of Japanese

Location:

518-B Sprau Tower, Mail Stop 5338

Mailing address:

Department of World Languages and Literatures
Western Michigan University
1903 W Michigan Ave
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5338 USA

Office hours:

Sabbatical

Students whose last names begin with A through M should see Dr. Rika Saito.
Students whose last names begin with N through Z should see Dr. Carlos Pimentel.

Education:

Ph.D., Japanese Studies, University of Pennsylvania, 2005
M.A., Sociolinguistics and Intercultural Communication, University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, 1999

Certification:

Graduate certificate, Gender Studies, University of Pennsylvania, 2005

Teaching Interests:

Gender and feminist studies in Japan
Japanese language and culture
Modern Japanese literature

Research Interests:

Gender and feminist literacy criticism in modern Japanese texts
Language and gender
Language policy

Bio:

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.