She teaches courses in interracial/intercultural communication, critical race theory in communication, and Japanese pop culture from interpretive and critical perspectives. Her current areas of research include cultural adaptation, intercultural identity, and the concept of privilege in relation to issues of race and racism. She uses various methods in her scholarly work, such as personal narrative, autoethnography, performance, and filmmaking. She created an autoethnographic performance called “On Becoming Japerican,” which was originally performed at Southern Illinois University–Carbondale in 2004. From 2004 to 2007, she performed at universities and in conferences.