Mayako’s primary interest is understanding the modes and patterns of colonial and post-colonial interactions across Japan and Korea. In her master’s thesis, she explored some of these complex formations under imperial war mobilization in Korea, i.e. late 1930s to early 1940s, through the lens of colonial tourism. Going forwards, she hopes to further expand her perspectives into gender studies, performance, media, and cultural studies. She looks forward to exploring questions of identity, embodiment, and gendered subjectivities in the colonial context, as well as in the contemporary history of Japan-Korea exchanges in popular culture such as K-Pop.

Mayako earned her BA in history with a minor in chemistry at International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan, and her MA in Regional Studies - East Asia at Harvard.