UMass Boston

Teruko Kawashima, Professor, Asian Studies

Teruko Kawashima

Department:
Asian Studies
Title:
Professor
Professor of Japanese, Department of Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
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Biography

Terry Kawashima specializes in literature and culture of the Heian and medieval periods in Japan (800-1500), with a particular interest in how texts envision and contribute to the construction of authority, legitimacy, and power in social, political, religious, and gendered arenas. At UMass Boston, she teaches a range of interdisciplinary, comparative courses on Asian cultures, as well as Japan-specific courses.

Area of Expertise
  • Heian and medieval Japanese literature and culture
  • Race and visuality in contemporary popular culture

Degrees

Ph.D., East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University

M.A., Regional Studies -- East Asia, Harvard University

B.A., Asian Studies and Art History, Cornell University

Professional Publications & Contributions

Monographs in Heian and medieval Japanese studies:

  • Writing Margins: The Textual Construction of Gender in Heian and Kamakura Japan. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Asia Center Publications, 2001.
  • Itineraries of Power: Texts and Traversals in Heian and Medieval Japan. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Asia Center Publications, 2016.

Articles on race and visuality in contemporary popular culture:

  • ”Seeing Faces, Making Races: Challenging Visual Tropes of Racial Difference.” Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism, vol. 3 no. 1 (2002).
  • ”Black Butterfly Denied: Race and Masquerade in My Geisha.” Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism, vol. 24 no. 1 (2025).
  • Current research: discourses/tropes of resurrections, rebirths, and replications in premodern Japan.

Additional Information

Courses:

  • ASIAN/MLLC 155L Great Books of East Asia: Classics of Love and War
  • ASIAN/MLLC 265L Icons of East Asia: Stereotypes, Gender, and Cultural History from "Geisha Girls" to "Martial Masters"
  • ASIAN/MLLC 366L Re-made in Asia: Tellings and Retellings from Buddha to Godzilla
  • ASIAN/MLLC 488L The Idea of Asia 
  • JAPAN/ASIAN 252L Premodern Japanese Culture
  • JAPAN/ASIAN 367L Food and Culture in Japan: National Identity and Diversity, Past and Present
  • JAPAN 101 Beginning Japanese