Katherine Saltzman-Li

Katherine Saltzman-Li is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), affiliated with the Department of East Asian Languages & Cultural Studies, the Program in Comparative Literature, and the Department of Theater and Dance. Her research focuses on Japanese performing arts, particularly Kabuki theater, Japanese literature, and folklore. She holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University.

Her work examines Edo-period Kabuki playwriting through studies of rare treatises like Kezairoku, interactions among Edo artists, and adaptations of puppet theater into Kabuki. She co-edited Cultural Imprints: War and Memory in the Samurai Age (2022) and Realisms in East Asian Performance (2023), challenging Eurocentric theatrical realism frameworks. She co-curated exhibitions on Japanese theater prints at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and directs the Japanese Performing Arts Research Consortium (JPARC).

Her teaching spans Japanese literature, folklore, and performance studies, including courses on traditional theater, comparative drama, and digital humanities applications in theater research.