Helen Kaibara

Helen Kaibara is a scholar of Modern Asian History with a focus on Japan. She has graduated from Portland State University (B.A.-Political Science, 2006), Eastern Kentucky University (M.A.-American History, 2010), and Michigan State University (Ph.D.- East Asian History, 2017). She has also studied at Waseda University (2004-5), and was a Fulbright scholar at Rikkyo University (2015-16)--both in Tokyo, Japan. Her Ph.D. dissertation traced the transpacific origins of the Japanese American “model minority” myth in the early twentieth century. Her teaching fields are: East Asian History, General Asian History, Asian American History, Modern American History, and Diplomatic History.

Her work has appeared in print in a number of publications, including an edited volume on Asian return migration, Transnational Migration and Asia: The Question of Return (University of Amsterdam Press/University of Chicago Press), and the journals: Studies on Asia, The Virginia Review of Asian Studies, and Rikkyo American Studies. In addition to this, she has presented work at several regional, national, and international conferences including: Migration Without Boundaries Graduate Student Conference (she was a founding member of the planning committee), The Association for Asian Studies, the Social Science History Association, and the Australian Historical Association.

She is a native of the Pacific Northwest but has lived in many parts of the United States including: Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Kentucky, Michigan, and now Alabama. When she is not researching, reading new scholarship on her areas of study, or creating materials to be used in classes, she likes watching documentaries, cooking, and water sports—such as swimming and kayaking.