Naomi Fukumori, associate professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, has been appointed director of the Institute for Japanese Studies (IJS), beginning January 1, 2021. Fukumori will be responsible for enhancing Japanese studies programming to advance and disseminate knowledge about Japan, including its people, language, art, culture, history and its society to students, faculty, staff, including outreach to K-12, communities and businesses throughout the state of Ohio. IJS is under the umbrella of the East Asian Studies Center, one of Ohio State’s three fully funded U.S. Department of Education’s Title VI National Resource Centers. 

Fukumori is a specialist in Heian (794-1185) and Kamakura period (1185-1333) court literature (poetry and prose), with particular interests in issues of women’s writing; history and narrative; and the dynamics among patronage, literary practice and canonization in premodern literature. She currently teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in premodern Japanese literature and culture, East Asian women’s writing and Japanese American literature.

She earned her PhD from Columbia University and her A.B. from Harvard University.

Prof. Etsuyo Yuasa, associate professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, will serve as interim director of the Institute for Japanese Studies until Prof. Fukumori's term begins.