Takayoshi recently received his Ph.D. from Columbia University’s department of English and comparative literature. His research interests include American literature, political theory, literature and war and Asian-American literature. His dissertation, Empire on Paper: Interventionist and Isolationist Literature in the United States, 1939–1941, will be nominated for the Bancroft Prize for the Best Dissertation in U.S. History in 2009. It examines the discourse of patriotism and internationalism on the eve of the U.S. entry into World War II through the works of key fiction writers, cultural critics and religious leaders.