The Japanese had their own motive for deliberately spreading the usage of the term Manchuria.[23] The historian Norman Smith wrote that "The term 'Manchuria' is controversial".[24] Professor Mariko Asano Tamanoi said that she "should use the term in quotation marks" when referring to Manchuria.[25] In his 2012 dissertation on the Jurchen people to obtain a Doctor of Philosophy degree in History from the University of Washington, Professor Chad D. Garcia noted that usage of the term "Manchuria" is out of favor in "current scholarly practice" and that he had ceased using the term, instead using "the northeast" or referring to specific geographical features.[26]