Current
2024 – current Assistant Professor, Department of Modern Languages and Comparative Literature, Baruch College
Education
2019 PhD in Comparative Literature, Department of Modern Languages & Cultural Studies, University of Alberta
2014 Kadokawa Culture Promotion Foundation Media-Content Research Project, 2-Week Summer Program, University of Tokyo
2013 MA in Text/Community/Discourse, Department of English Language and Literature, Brock University
2012 MA in Popular Culture, Department of Communications, Popular Culture, and Film, Brock University
2010 BA (Hons) in English Language and Literature, Department of English Language and Literature, Minor in Applied Linguistics, Brock University
Academic Appointments (Selected)
2024 – current (Fall) Assistant Professor, Department of Modern Languages and Comparative Literature, Baruch College
2025 (May-June) Visiting Research Professor at Ritsumeikan University Kinugasa Campus, Asia Research Center and the Ritsumeikan Center for Game Studies
2025-2026 Interim Director of the Japanese Program, Department of Modern Languages and Comparative Literature, Baruch College
2023 (Fall) Director of Undergraduate Studies, Asian Studies Program, College of Arts and Science, University at Buffalo
2023 (Spring) Assistant Teaching Professor, Asian Studies Program, College of Arts and Science, University at Buffalo
Teaching Awards
2021 Covid-19 Remote Teaching Award ($1000)
2020 Faculty of Arts Unit Teaching Award, Japanese Language Program
Interviews & Podcasts
2025 (April 16) ‘Manga, Murder and Mystery,” Bloomsbury, 2023), Podcast of Artificial Hearts LLC, By Guilherme Brasil de Souza
2024 (November 22) “Mimi Okabe, ‘Manga, Murder and Mystery: The Boy Detectives of Japan’s Lost Generation (Bloomsbury, 2023),’” New Books in East Asian Studies, By Dr. Amanda Kennell
2022 Invited Interviewer, Toronto International of Authors' Crime & Mystery Festival, “Interview with Fuminori Nakamura, focusing on the book My Annihilation,” Toronto, Canada.
2021 Excalibur #18: "Wild Wild Wheels" THE OH GOSH, OH GOLLY, OH WOW! PODCAST, By Drs. Anna Peppard and J. Andrew Deman, and Christopher "Mav" Maverick (Ph.D. Candidate)
2020 Episode 4: Teaching Remotely Series - Teaching Languages and Literature Remotely with Mimi Okabe, Centre for Teaching and Learning podcast series, University of Alberta
2018 “What do Black Holes Represent in Science Fiction?,” ASTRO 101: Black Holes, By Dr. Sharon Morsink
2018 “How are Black Holes Portrayed in Japanese Popular Culture?,” ASTRO 101: Black Holes, By Dr. Sharon Morsink
2024 (October 23-25) Distinguished Visitors Talk, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Haverford College ($1,378.00)
2024 (August 1) In-person Presentation, “From Canada to Japan: Exploring Adaptations of Professor Moriarty in Popular Culture,” 2024 Shaw Seminar, The Shaw Festival, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada ($150.00)
2024 (August 10) Zoom Presentation, “An Introduction to World of Sherlock Holmes in Japanese Anime and Manga,” The Shaka Sherlockians of Hawaii Quarterly Meeting, Honolulu, Hawaii
2024 (April) Zoom Presentation, “Ladies, Leaves and Corporate Liabilities? Personnel Policies in the Japanese Game Industry,” School of Interactive Games and Media, Rochester Institute of Technology
2022 “Teen Killers Undercover: Shōnen Hanzai and the Rise of the Boy Detective in Manga of the Heisei Era,” Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, University of Delaware
2022 (Winter), “Understanding Japanese Detective Manga: Teens, Traditions & Themes,” JAPANESE 2X03 - Japanese Anime, Department of Religious Studies, McMaster University
2021 Invited Moderator, “Parallel Worlds: Translators Behind the Scenes Interview with author Eto Mori & translator Jocelyne Allen,” Japan Foundation, Toronto
2019 Toronto Bootmakers of Toronto: The Sherlock Holmes Society of Canada, “From Wiggins and Beyond: Representations of the Unofficial Force in Japanese Popular Culture,” Toronto, Canada
Invited Talks
2019-ongoing English Board, The Journal of Replaying Japan, Ritsumeikan University
2019- 2021 Managing Editor, The Polyglot Magazine, Edmonton, Alberta.
2014 (Winter) Editorial Assistant, Canadian Review of Comparative Literature/ Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée, University of Alberta
Editorial Board
Interpreter Work
2014 Interpreter for Tomohiro Nishikado (Keynote Speaker), “Innovation at the Dawn of Japanese Video Games: Speed Race to Space Invaders”, Replaying Japan 2014: The 2nd International Japan Game Studies Conference, University of Alberta
Certifications
2015 Certificate of intermediate proficiency in Mandarin, Chinese Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng Kǎoshì (Level 3), issued by the Chinese National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (NOTCFL)
2008 Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL), Oxford Seminars
Literary Organizations
2021 Member, The Shaka Sherlockians of Hawaii
2020 - 2024 Director-at-Large, Toronto Bootmakers of Toronto: The Sherlock Holmes Society of Canada
2019 Honorary Member, Japan Sherlock Holmes Club
2017- 2020 Member, The Wisteria Lodgers-The Sherlock Holmes Society of Edmonton
Conferences (Selected)
Conferences Organized
2024 (August) Conference Chair, 12th Annual Replaying Japan Conference, University at Buffalo (SUNY), New York, USA
Panels Organized
2025 (June 30 – July 4), Workshop Organizer, “Gendered Narratives in Japanese Gaming,” Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA), University of Malta, Valetta, Malta
2024 (September) Panel Chair, Critical Approaches to the “Asian Century:” From Gender Relations to Environmental Concerns, New York Conference on Asian Studies, University at Buffalo (SUNY), Buffalo, USA
2024 (March) Panel Organizer, “Reimagining the Shōjo in Transnational Manga Adaptations of Western Classics,” Association for Asian Studies, Seattle, USA
2021 (May) Panel Organizer, “Mentor-morphosis: Navigating through Cycles of Learning and Self Exploration in Higher Ed,” the University of Calgary Conference on Postsecondary Learning and Teaching, Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning, University of Calgary, Alberta (ONLINE)
2018 (May) Panel Organizer, “Breaking the Mold: Manga & the Politics of Identity,” 5th Annual Canadian Society for the Study of Comics (CSSC), Toronto, Ontario
Invited Panels
2025 (March), Invited Roundtable, “What’s Next? Trans-Pacific Fandom Studies in the Deglobalizing Era, Association for Asian Studies, Columbus, Ohio, USA
2024 (November) Invited Panel, “The Politics of Japanese Detective Games,” Critique and Controversy in Japanese Videogames, 52nd Annual Mid-Atlantic Region Association for Asian Studies Conference, University of Delaware, Delaware, USA
2024 (March) Roundtable, “Translating Japanese Videogame Theory,” Association for Asian Studies, Seattle, USA
2022 (June) Invited Panel, “Canonizing Jane Austen in Canadian Shōjo Manga: Context, Form and Themes” in “Can-ga: Canadian manga, the fourth solitude in Canada? Asian-Canadian comics and its connections between comics, manga and/or BD in Canada,” American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), Taiwan (online)
2021 (March) “Method in Madness: Detecting Disability in Japanese Detective Video Games,” Association for Asian Studies, Boston, United States (ONLINE)
2019 (June) “The City as Playground: Boy Detectives, Crime and Urban Space,” Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Division of The Canadian Comparative Literature Association (CCLA), Video Conference, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
2018 (September) “Global Crime Fighters: Detecting Japan’s ‘Crisis’ of Identity in Daigyakuten Saiban 1 & 2,” British Association for Japanese Studies (BAJS), Sheffield, England.
Papers Presented
2025 (June 7 - 9), “The Shōjo Detective in Japanese Manga: Gender, Girlhood, andSocial Agency,” Mechademia, Kyoto, Japan
2023 (August) Co-authored Paper Presented, “Perceptions on Teaching and Learning “Japanese” as a “Heritage” Language: The Construction of a Virtual Nikkei Space,” Canadian Association for Japanese Language Education. Edmonton, Canada (CAJLE)¸ Montréal, Quebec
2023 (August) Co-authored Paper Presented, “Japan’s Labor Shortage Crisis and the Future of Japanese Game Companies,” 11th Annual Replaying Japan Conference, Nagoya University, Japan
2022 (forthcoming) “(Un)Learning Japanese: Paving a Path for Language Justice for Nikkei Learners of Japanese,” American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), Boston, USA, (online)
2022 (August) “Teaching against the Grain: Antiracist Pedagogical Approaches in a Global Nikkei Community of Japanese language Learners (グローバル時代における日系人のための日本語と反人種差別的な教育アプローチ),” Canadian Association for Japanese Language Education (CAJLE), Canada, (online)
2022 (June) “The Visual Culture of Japanese Diaspora: Drawing Race, Identity and Home in Three Canadian Graphic Novels,” Academic Symposium: Histories & Futures of Comics Communities, Toronto Comic Arts Festival, Toronto, Canada
2021 (November) “Strangers in a Multicultural Nation: Reclaiming Language in the Nikkei Community.” Reconciling Multiculturalism in Today’s Canada, Edmonton, Canada. (Watch online).
2021 (August) “On Designing Curriculum for Nikkei: Cultural Politics, Pitfalls and Potentialities「日系人」のための日本語 カリキュラム 設計:文化的政策の可能性と危険性.” Canadian Association for Japanese Language Education. Edmonton, Canada. (Watch online).
2021 (August) Amano Keiji, Rockwell Geoffrey and Okabe Tsugumi. “Moral Management in Japanese Game Companies,”9th Annual Replaying Japan Conference, Edmonton, Canada (online).
2020 (August) Amano Keiji, Rockwell Geoffrey and Okabe Tsugumi. “Ethics and Gaming: A Content Analysis of Annual Reports of the Japanese Game Industry,”8th Annual Replaying Japan Conference, Liège, Belgium (online).
2017 (August) “The Game is Afoot: Transmedia Storytelling in Japanese Sherlockian Video games,” 5th Annual Replaying Japan Conference, Rochester, United States of America.
2016 (August) “Harnessing the Power of Persuasion: Strategies towards Increasing Women’s Participation in Japan’s Game Industry,” 4th Annual Replaying Japan Conference, Leipzig, Germany.
2015 (May) “From Past to Present: The Transformation of Detective Fiction to Detective Manga," Canadian Society for the Study of Comics (CSSC), Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
2015 (May) “Trapped by Myths of Motherhood(?): The Crisis of Female Game Developers in Japan,” 3rd Annual Replaying Japan Conference, Kyoto, Japan.