Aki Hirota, Ph.D., Professor
- Japanese Section Head, Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures
- Faculty Athletics Representative
B.A. in English Literature from Fukuoka Women's University.
M.A. in History from the University of Oklahoma.
Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Cultures from UCLA.
- Born and raised in Fukuoka, Japan.
- Taught high school English for four years before moving to the United States.
- Taught Japanese at International Christian University in Tokyo, Vanderbilt University, and Occidental College.
- Taught and built Japanese programs at the University of Oklahoma, Amherst College, and CSUN.
- Served for two years on the Japanese Achievement Test Development Committee, which prepared the first Asian language exam to be included in the College Board tests in 1993.
- After the Test was renamed the SAT II: Japanese Test, served as its first Committee Chair for three years.
- Taught courses in Japanese language, Japanese literature, Japanese history, Japanese culture, Women Writers of Asia, East Asian Humanities, Cultural Studies.
- Teaching licenses in the traditional arts of flower arrangement and koto (thirteen string lute)
- Took lessons in tea ceremony, Japanese dance, and scroll making to better prepare for teaching various aspects of Asian culture and society.
- Research activities span from the tenth century to contemporary Japan.
- Main interest: the shift of poetic theory and practice from the classical period to the medieval period, and the connection between aesthetics and politics.
- Other research interests include the power struggle between the court and the shogunate, armed conflicts between Japanese feudal clans and a combined fleet of western ships in the late 19th century, contemporary women writers, women's position in Asian societies, and the reception of classical literature in modern Japan.
- 23rd Annual Japan Translation Culture Prize, awarded in 1986 by the Japan Society of Translators for translation (with Sidney Brown) of the Diary of Kido Takayoshi, Vol.III.
- Fulbright Dissertation Fellowship 1984-1985.
- Japan Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, 1985-86.
- Sasakawa Fellowship for Japanese Studies, 1987-88.
- NEH Summer Institute; Curricular Models for Japanese Literature, U.C. Berkeley, Summer, 1981.
- Japanese Teachers' Workshop, Cornell University, Summer, 1980.
- NEH Seminar; Nature and Society in East Asia, GLCA Center for East Asian Studies, Summer, 1977.
- Judge Julian Beck Instructional Improvement Award on "Integration of Technology into the Japanese 101 Curriculum" 1997-98
- Polished Apple Award from University Ambassadors, 1997
- CSUN Distinguished Teaching Award, 1992-93
- Resident Director, CSU International Programs, Wasada University, Tokyo, 1995-96, 2000-01