Clara Iwasaki

Clara Iwasaki is an Associate Professor at the University of Alberta, holding dual appointments in the Department of East Asian Studies and the Department of Women's & Gender Studies within the Faculty of Arts. She earned her PhD in Modern Chinese and Sinophone Literature from UCLA. Her research focuses on transpacific studies, Cold War literary history, and Sinophone cultural production, with a particular emphasis on intersections of race, migration, and postcolonialism.

Research Interests: Iwasaki’s work straddles modern Chinese literature, Sinophone cinema, and transnational Asian studies. She explores themes such as transpacific cultural exchanges, the legacy of Japanese imperialism, and the role of migration in shaping literary canons. Her first book, Rethinking the Modern Chinese Canon, examines global connections in modern Chinese literature through translation and migration. She is currently leading a SSHRC Insight Development Grant-funded project (2022–2024) on Comparative Race and Racialization in East Asian Literature.

Teaching: Iwasaki teaches courses on modern Chinese literature, Taiwanese and Hong Kong cinema, queer Sinophone studies, and postcolonial East Asia. Recent courses include Modern Chinese Literature in Translation, Gender Research Workshop, and Advanced Chinese Language Studies.

Affiliations & Grants: Her interdisciplinary approach bridges East Asian Studies and Women's & Gender Studies. She has published in venues like Cross Currents and International Journal of Taiwan Studies, and her commentary on transpacific literary history has been featured in Critical Asian Studies.

Future Work: Ongoing projects include her second monograph on race and East Asian literature, and supervising graduate students in comparative Asian and Asian/North American contexts.