Noriko Asato, Ph.D.

My initial graduate education in the United States was in Education and Asian Studies. I largely focused on language education and sociolinguistics. My first professional position was at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL).

There, I met some of the over 100 Japanese Americans who were able to escape the “internment” and study at UNL during the war. Their stories inspired me and influenced my future research agenda. Since then I’ve had a few grants to do archival research on the Japanese American or the Nikkei experience. While at UNL, I ran Japanese Studies, including overseeing the Kawasaki Reading Room for Japanese Studies. These experiences prepared me for my current position.

 

Presently, my research focuses on the early Japanese immigrants’ experience in reading and libraries in the wider context of print culture. I’m hoping to bring my research streams together in order to do historical research with a broader brush that shows the interplay between politics, discrimination, international relations, and our growing respect for basic human rights, including intellectual freedom and cultural heritage preservation.