Ikuko Asaka

Ikuko Asaka is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Illinois, affiliated with the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. Her research focuses on U.S. imperialism, race, gender, and climate in transimperial and global contexts. She holds a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Gender and Women’s History Program (2010).

Research interests include the intersections of settler colonialism and Black exclusion, climate’s role in intellectual debates over Black freedom, and U.S. engagements with Japan and the Pacific. Her book Tropical Freedom (2017) examines climate rhetoric in Black exclusion efforts. Current projects explore U.S. imperialism in the Pacific up to the Philippine-American War.

Awards include the Conrad Humanities Scholar (2021–2026), Lincoln Excellence for Assistant Professors Award (2016–2018), and a New Faculty Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies (2012–2013). She has received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Philosophical Society.

Teaching includes courses on U.S. history, gender history, and global gender studies. Affiliations extend to the Gender and Women’s Studies program, Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies, and Center for the Study of Global Gender Equity.