Anne Sokolsky
Anne Sokolsky received her Ph.D. in Modern Japanese Literature with a sub-specialty in Gender Studies from the University of California, Berkeley in 2003. Her first book From New Woman Writer to Socialist: The Life and Selected Writings of Tamura Toshiko from 1936鈥1938 (Brill, 2015) is about one of Japan鈥檚 early modern feminist writers who spent two decades living in North America in the 1920s and 1930s. Her second book, an edited volume titled Bold Breaks: Japanese Women and Literary Narratives of Divorce (University of Hawai鈥檌 Press, 2025), includes a translation of Tamura鈥檚 first published story 鈥淭suyuwake goromo.鈥 Sokolsky鈥檚 research on Tamura has appeared in scholarly journals published in the United States and Japan. Other research projects include the translation of Shigemitsu Mamoru鈥檚 Sugamo prison diary and the literary production and reception of women鈥檚 writing in Taiwan during Japan鈥檚 rule of the country from 1895-1945. Sokolsky is also working on a biography of her grandfather, who was a journalist in Shanghai in the early part of the twentieth century.
Sokolsky lived in Japan for six years. Prior to Japan, she spent two years in Morocco where she was a Peace Corps volunteer. She learned Moroccan Arabic and then continued studying Arabic at Harvard University, where she received a M.Ed. in International Education and Development. At U.C. Berkeley, she received the Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor award (2002) and a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (2001-2002) fellowship to support the writing of her dissertation.
Sokolsky鈥檚 teaching experience has included the University of Southern California, U.C. Berkeley, U.C. Santa Barbara, and Ohio Wesleyan University. At Ohio Wesleyan, Sokolsky was professor and chair of the Comparative Literature Department. In 2018, she became an honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa and in 2021, she received Ohio Wesleyan University鈥檚 Welch Award for Scholarly Achievement.
In 2022, she held the Endowed Chair in Taiwan Studies at the . Sokolsky has also been a visiting scholar at the European Research Center on Contemporary Taiwan (ERCCT) at T眉bingen University (2023) and Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan (2024).
She is the Literature Editor for the .
Learning & Teaching
- INTL 100 Introduction to International Studies: The Making of the Modern World
- JAPN 111/112 First Year Japanese
- W101 First Year Writing (The Art, Politics, and Economics of Travel Writing)
- EAST 235 Introduction to Modern Chinese and Japanese Literature
- EAST 264 East Asian Film
- EAST 264 Taiwan Women’s World
- EAST 264 Money Talks: Women, Economics, and East Asian Literature
- EAST 264 Bad Girls of Japan
- DH 200 Silk Road Travel Stories and Digital Humanities
Works
Books:
Bold Breaks: Japanese Women and Literary Narratives of Divorce (University of Hawai鈥檌 Press, 2025).
From New Woman Writer to Socialist: The Life and Selected Writings of Tamura Toshiko 1936-1938 (Brill Publishers, 2015).
Book Chapters:
- 鈥淓xpressing Emotions in a Colonial Context: Huang Fengzi鈥檚 Taiwan no sh艒jo (A Young Girl of Taiwan).鈥 The Politics of Emotion in Taiwan (Routledge Press, 2026).
- 鈥淢iyamoto Yuriko and Socialist Writers.鈥 The Columbia Companion to Modern East Asian Literature. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003, pp. 164 - 169.
Selected Journal Articles
- 鈥溾&苍产蝉辫;TAIWAN INSIGHT, August 25, 2026.
- 鈥淚mperial Women’s Travel Writing in the Japanese Colonial Magazine Taiwan fujinkai (Taiwan Women’s World) 1934-1939.鈥 U.S.-Japan Women’s Journal, no 68 (2025): 46-83.
- 鈥淩etranslating the Tokyo Trial: Shigemitsu Mamoru鈥檚 Prison Diary,鈥 The Twelfth International Convention of Asia Scholars ICAS 12, volume 1 (June 2022): 674-682.
- 鈥淩eading the Bodies and Voices of Naichi Women in Japanese Ruled Taiwan.鈥 U.S. - Japan Women鈥檚 Journal, no. 46 (September 2014): 51-78.
- 鈥淵ang Qianhe and Huang Fengzi: Two Voices of Colonial Taiwan.鈥 Japanese Studies Association Journal, vol. 8 (December 2010): 239 鈥 266.
- 鈥淒orei: A Play by Tamura Toshiko.鈥 Co-written with Timothy Yamamura. Asian Theatre Journal, vol. 27, no. 2 (Fall 2010): pp. 203 鈥 245.
- 鈥淲riting between the Spaces of Nation and Culture: Tamura Toshiko鈥檚 1930s Fiction about Japanese Immigrants.鈥 U.S.- Japan Women鈥檚 Journal, no. 28 (2005): 76 鈥 108.
- 鈥淣o Place to Call Home: Negotiating the 鈥楾hird Space鈥 for Returned Japanese Americans in Tamura Toshiko鈥檚 鈥楤ubetsu鈥(Scorn).鈥 The Japan Review, vol. 17 (March 2005): 121 - 148.