Ayaka Yoshimizu

Ayaka Yoshimizu is an Associate Professor of Teaching at the University of British Columbia's Department of Asian Studies and Associate Graduate Advisor. She coordinates UBC-Ritsumeikan Exchange Programs and teaches transpacific histories, anti-colonial methodologies, and Asian diaspora studies.

Research Areas:

• Transpacific memory studies
• Sensory ethnography
• Gender and migration
• Performance-based research
• Decolonial pedagogy

Key Trends in Research: Her work combines sensory studies with migration history, focusing on marginalized migrant populations—particularly women in transnational sex work—and employs performance ethnography to explore historical memory. She also investigates anti-racist teaching methods and Indigenizing academic curricula.

Public Contributions: Co-developer of the open-access Sex and Migration in the Transpacific Underground platform and the 2023 UBC Transdisciplinary Symposium of Disability Research workshop organizer.