Contact Information
810 S. Wright St.
M/C 466
Urbana, IL 61801
Research Interests
My research focuses on the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century United States, especially the formation of U.S. empire and the history of gender and race. I am particularly interested in how race, gender, sexuality, and climate shaped imperial relations, as well as in the racial construction of “Asian difference" and its relation to binarized categories.
Education
PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Gender and Women's History Program, 2010
Grants
Summer Stipend, National Endowment for the Humanities, 2020
Franklin Research Grant, American Philosophical Society, 2020
Awards and Honors
Conrad Humanities Scholar, 2021-2026
Lincoln Excellence for Assistant Professors Award, 2016-18
New Faculty Fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies, 2012-13
Courses Taught
HIST171 U.S. History to 1877
HIST285 U.S. Gender History to 1877
HIST316 Global Histories of Gender
HIST317 Birth of U.S.Empire
Additional Campus Affiliations
Associate Professor, History
Associate Professor, Gender and Women's Studies
Associate Professor, Center for the Study of Global Gender Equity
Associate Professor, Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies
Honors & Awards
Conrad Humanities Scholar, 2021-2026
Lincoln Excellence for Assistant Professors Award, 2016-18
New Faculty Fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies, 2012-13
Highlighted Publications
Asaka, I. (2017). Tropical Freedom: Climate, Settler Colonialism, and Black Exclusion in the Age of Emancipation. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822372752
Recent Publications
Asaka, I. (2024). The endurance and expanse of settler colonial history. Settler Colonial Studies, 14(4), 465-469. https://doi.org/10.1080/2201473X.2024.2371485
Asaka, I. (2024). Women’s Labor in Empire and Diaspora. Diplomatic History, 48(3), 449-452. https://doi.org/10.1093/dh/dhae003
Asaka, I. (2023). Guerilla Women and Men in Silk Dresses Diplomacy and Orientalism during the 1860 Japanese Mission. Journal of the Civil War Era, 13(4), 444-468. https://doi.org/10.1353/cwe.2023.a912397
Asaka, I. (2020). African-American Migration and the Climatic Language of Anglophone Settler Colonialism. In K. L. Hoganson, & J. Sexton (Eds.), Crossing Empires: Taking U.S. History into Transimperial Terrain (pp. 205-221). (American Encounters/Global Interactions). Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478007432-010
Asaka, I. (2020, Oct 14). H-Diplo Roundtable XXII-8, “A Teaching Roundtable on Teaching Colonialism in History” (October 14, 2020). https://networks.h-net.org/node/28443/discussions/6565831/h-diplo-roundtable-xxii-8-teaching-colonialism-history