
Alice Valentine
Professor Valentine teaches courses in Japanese language and culture, with an over-arching goal to develop in her students an awareness of the cultural context of language. She is particularly interested in the ways Japanese cultural production — literature, film, visual art, music — shapes and is shaped by a sense of national identity. While her research interests range from language pedagogy to classical Japanese poetry to Japanese nationalism, she considers herself a comparatist at heart. She believes that the rigorous and creative interpretation of texts is a cornerstone of the humanities, and plays a fundamental role in our understanding of ourselves and our shared humanity.