Aiko Takeuchi

Aiko (she/her) is the Liu-Dang Lecturer in Undergraduate Teaching and IR Capstone Coordinator. She spoke with us about her research interests, favorite courses, hobbies and more!

Can you tell us about yourself and how you got into your field?

 My PhD is in American Studies, which is a very interdisciplinary field.  My dissertation, which turned into my first book, was on how the war between the United States and Japan influenced the birth control movement.

What are your research interests at Stanford? What have you been working on recently?

My main interest is how international politics has shaped American ideas over citizenship, race, and gender,  especially gender and feminist issues in a transnational or international framework.

Most recently, I've been working on this short piece about Japanese feminist peace movements in the mid-20th century, when Japan was in the middle of the Imperial Wars. This was a time when transnational peace movements were taking shape. I'm looking at how these feminists play key roles in peace activism and in international meetings, sometimes even affecting policy decisions at a time when regular diplomatic negotiations done by male leaders were failing.

How did you end up at Stanford?

 I first came to the Stanford campus a long time ago when I was a college student at the University of Tokyo. I took part in this short-term cultural immersion program for about a month, and this really inspired me in many ways and made me want to come back here.

I ended up going to the East Coast at Brown for my graduate studies, but I always wanted to come back to the West Coast. Eventually, this did happen when my family was relocated to this area. At that time, I briefly taught a course about  transnational reproductive politics at Stanford’s feminist gender sexuality studies program before taking a faculty position at Koç University in Istanbul, Turkey. I then heard about this position in the IR program, and I applied because I really just wanted to come back.

What course(s) do you teach at Stanford/favorite course(s) to teach at Stanford?

Basically, planning as well as implementing the IR Capstone requirements. Most importantly, my role is to meet with students and help them plan their capstones, both explaining the course options as well as discussing their individual project topics.

I also teach the project course: one of the capstone options that we offer. That's my main role in the IR program. I also teach a citizenship course in the COLLEGE program, too.

What do you do outside of your academic work?

I'm on a couple of committees, editorial teams, and research projects with colleagues across the world, where I regularly communicate with people in Japan, Turkey, Germany, and elsewhere. Because of the time differences, these often involve late-night or early morning meetings. In that way, this is like my hobby now. Tennis has always been my way of releasing stress and getting some exercise, but I don't play competitively. It's just for fun and to stay healthy.