Naoko Wake

Naoko Wake is a Professor at Michigan State University specializing in the history of race, gender, sexuality, and illness in the 20th-century United States and Pacific Rim. Her research explores tensions between medical objectivity and cultural subjectivity, with a focus on nuclear trauma, disability, and Asian American experiences.

Her major works include Private Practices (2011) on psychoanalytic approaches to homosexuality and American Survivors (2021) on trans-Pacific atomic bomb survivor narratives. She co-authored Hiroshima/Nagasaki Beyond the Ocean (2014) and is currently researching disability among Asian Pacific Islander Desi Americans (APIDA).

Wake has received numerous awards, including the Huntington Library’s Dibner Fellowship (2018-19) and the 2018 Oral History Association Best Article Award. Her public history projects include oral histories archived at Densho and op-eds addressing cultural memory and contemporary issues.