Yuki Ishida explores how language and literature shape the way we see the world, arguing that this is most evident at sites of linguistic friction. Grounded in modern Japanese literature, criticism, and Russo–Japanese literary relations, she examines how languages, literatures, and cultural concepts interact in periods of flux, treating translation as an active, interdisciplinary site where people prototype newly emerging concepts to perceive the world.

Research Areas

Modern Japanese literature and criticism; intellectual and cultural history of modern Japan; translation studies; modern Russian literature and Russo-Japanese literary relations; disability studies and medical humanities.

Education

• Ph.D. in Japanese Literature, Columbia University, 2022.
• M.Phil. in Japanese Literature, Columbia University, 2018.
• M.A. in Japanese Literature, Columbia University, 2017.
• M.A. in Russian Literature, Theory of Literature, Saint Petersburg State University, 2015.
• B.A. in Comparative Japanese Studies, University of Tokyo, 2006.

Selected Publications

Current Book Project 

• Translational Literary Modernity: Futabatei Shimei and the Discursive Foundations of the Modern in 1880s–1960s Japan. 

Articles and Book Chapters

• “Translating Madness: Psychiatry, Literature, and the Emergence of the ‘Modern Person’ in Post-Russo-Japanese War Japan.” In Japanese-Russian Transnational Comparison: Literary Circulation and Formation of Knowledge, edited by Olga V. Solovieva. Routledge (May 2026).
• “Sensō, kyōki, inaka: Futabatei Shimei ‘Fusagi no mushi’ to kanōsei to shite no ‘kindaijin’” [War, Madness, and Countryside: Futabatei Shimei's “Depression Bug” and the ‘Modern Person’ as Potentiality]. Hikaku bungaku nenshi / Annales de littérature comparée, no. 60 (March 2024).
• “Shōsetsu no kotoba, hon’yaku no kotoba, inaka no kotoba (zokuhen): Futabatei Shimei ‘Yonin kyōsandan’ to shōsetsu ni okeru kaiwabun no mondai” [The Language of Literature, Translation, and the Countryside (Continued): Futabatei Shimei’s “Commune of Four” and the Dialogue Problem]. Hikaku bungaku nenshi, no. 57 (March 2021).
• “Shōsetsu no kotoba, hon’yaku no kotoba, inaka no kotoba: Futabatei Shimei shin shiryō ‘Oyagokoro’ ‘Sakabukuro’ teihon shōkai, hon’yaku bunseki to Meiji 30-nendai no kotoba no ‘hyōjun’” [The Language of Literature, Translation, and the Countryside: Futabatei Shimei’s “Parent’s Heart,” “Drunkards,” and Language “Standards” in the Late 1890s–1900s]. Hikaku bungaku nenshi, no. 56 (March 2020).
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Representative Courses:

JAPN/COMP/ENGL342 Introduction to Modern Japanese Literature 

JAPN/COMP/ENGL339 Wounded Minds, Deviant Bodies: Illness and Disability in Japanese Media 

JAPN/COMP/ENGL345 The Supernatural in Japanese Fiction, Folklore and Drama

JAPN/COMP/ENGL339 The Other in Japanese Literature and Media