Research/Areas of Interest
Poetry, Imagination, Creativity, Finance and Art
Education
- PhD, Department of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University, New York, United States
- MA, Department of Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- BA, Department of Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Biography
I began my career as a historian of American literature and culture, publishing three books: American Writers and the Approach of World War II (Cambridge University Press, 2015), American Literature in Transition: 1920–1930 (Cambridge University Press, 2017), and American Literature in Transition: 1930–1940 (Cambridge University Press, 2018). These books are mainly concerned with showing how American letters in the first half of the twentieth century responded to the great transformations – technological, ethical, economic, and geopolitical – brought on by modernization.
My recent teaching and research turn to two linked questions. First, what exactly is the "literary imagination," and how do writers and readers cultivate it? Since antiquity, writers, thinkers, and scientists have developed diverse views on what the imagination contributes to the creation and appreciation of literature. In courses such as "The Literary Imagination" and "Poets on Poetry, my students and I work together to demystify this enigmatic mental power by checking the conventional views against each other and testing them against our own experiences. Second, I'm currently at work on a new book, Aesthetic Capital, which asks: how does "aesthetic capital"—our ability to create and enjoy art—grow over time? I quantify that capacity as a form of human capital and use tools borrowed from finance and economics to model how different investments and allocations—in study, practice, and exposure—compound into a lifetime of creativity and enjoyment.
I was born and raised in Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan's main islands. I hold a BA and a MA from the University of Tokyo and a Ph.D. in English from Columbia University.
My recent teaching and research turn to two linked questions. First, what exactly is the "literary imagination," and how do writers and readers cultivate it? Since antiquity, writers, thinkers, and scientists have developed diverse views on what the imagination contributes to the creation and appreciation of literature. In courses such as "The Literary Imagination" and "Poets on Poetry, my students and I work together to demystify this enigmatic mental power by checking the conventional views against each other and testing them against our own experiences. Second, I'm currently at work on a new book, Aesthetic Capital, which asks: how does "aesthetic capital"—our ability to create and enjoy art—grow over time? I quantify that capacity as a form of human capital and use tools borrowed from finance and economics to model how different investments and allocations—in study, practice, and exposure—compound into a lifetime of creativity and enjoyment.
I was born and raised in Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan's main islands. I hold a BA and a MA from the University of Tokyo and a Ph.D. in English from Columbia University.