معرفی
Kyoko Omori is an Associate Professor of Japanese in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at Hamilton College, appointed to the faculty in 2002. She serves as a core member of the Digital Humanities Initiative since 2010 and holds leadership roles including Chair of the East Asian Languages and Literatures Department (2014-18) and Director of the Asian Studies Program (2013-15). Her current service includes the Faculty Committee on Admission and Financial Aid (2019-present) and the Cinema and New Media Studies Program.
Her educational credentials include:
- Ph.D., Ohio State University
- M.A., Ohio State University
Omori's research centers on 20th-century Japanese popular culture with emphases on interwar film/magazines, Occupation-period radio, and silent film narrators (benshi). She pioneered the 'Benshi: Silent Film Narrators in Japan' digital archive, integrating literary and cinematic analysis through digital humanities. Her scholarship spans Japanese modernism, detective fiction, Higuchi Ichiyo's diaries, and vernacular modernism, examining how media forms reflect sociopolitical transformations in modern Japan.
Her publication trajectory reveals consistent engagement with media archaeology and cultural translation, particularly the transnational flow of formats like American radio shows adapted during the Occupation. Key analytical threads include sensory experience in film narration, gender in Meiji literature, and Pacific Rim migratory patterns, demonstrating interdisciplinary methodology bridging film studies, literary criticism, and historical media analysis.
Major distinctions include:
- Hakuhodo Foundation’s Japanese Research Fellowship (2018)
- SSRC/JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship (2007-08)
- Japan Foundation Japanese Studies Research Fellowship (2007-08)
- Twentieth-Century Japan Research Award (2006)
- Hamako Ito Chaplin Award for teaching excellence
- Christian A. Johnson Teaching Enhancement Award
- Class of 1966 Career Development Award
Research funding encompasses major external grants from the Japan Foundation (as PI for 'Performing Arts Japan'), Nichibunken, Prange Collection, and Freeman Foundation, alongside eight Emerson Foundation/Asian Studies student-faculty collaborations (2005-2020). Her teaching portfolio features innovative courses like 'Modern Japan: From A(-Bomb) to (Dragon Ball-)Z' and field studies in Japan, reflecting her commitment to experiential learning.
As co-founder of Hamilton's Digital Humanities Initiative, she directs the ongoing 'Benshi' archive project while maintaining active roles in professional organizations including the Association for Asian Studies, Modern Language Association, and Japan's Association for Showa Literature.
