She received her PhD from Stanford. She spent 10 years at the University of Illinois where, in addition to her teaching responsibilities, she served as director for the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies. She specializes in medieval Japanese literature and performing arts, particularly war tales and the Noh theatre. She will be teaching courses on early Japanese literature and theatre as well as classical language. This semester, in addition to a survey course of early Japanese literature, she will be offering a seminar on Japan’s most famous classical work, “The Tale of Genji.”