PhD Candidate in Architecture, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Yuko is a spatial ethnographer, driven by her curiosity about the intersection between human behavior and design of things in physical spaces. She studies people’s understandings and uses of public spaces in the United States and Japan. Her dissertation explores women’s tactical uses of non-domestic spaces in modern Tokyo (1868–1937). She looks into how women interpreted and appropriated schools, workplaces, eating and drinking establishments, and shopping and entertainment venues, the spaces that were not initially designed for them. Yuko is a PhD candidate in architecture at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a visiting fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo, Japan. She has served as an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation/Humanities Without Walls National Pre-doctoral Fellow (2017), the junior convener of Transnational Asia/Pacific Section, American Folklore Society (2015–17), a Fulbright scholar from Japan (2012–14). Yuko is most energized when grappling with methodological challenges, where traditional evidence of architectural studies, including buildings, architectural documentation, and public records, is scant. Primarily, she has explored underdocumented spaces that have been physically lost, but remain in people's stories and cultures.
PhD in Architecture With Minors in Folklore Studies & Urban Environmental History Buildings-Landscapes-Cultures Program University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, WI
2018 Expected
MArch in Urban Design Bartlett School of Architecture University College London, UK
2009
BEng, Urban Planning Concentration Senior Thesis Project at Behavior in Networks Studies Unit University of Tokyo, Japan
2008
“Cultural Landscape Conservation (Japan).” “Japanese Lexicon.” In the Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World 2nd edition, edited by Marcel Vellinga
2018 Forthcoming
“Gendered Landscapes of Higher Education: Process and Social Meanings in the Campus Development of a Women’s Specialized School in Tokyo, Japan, 1900–31.” Buildings & Landscapes: Journal of Vernacular Architecture Forum
Revise & resubmit
2014
2013 With Dan Cho & Fran Assa
“Space, Women, and Modernization: Changes in Mitsukoshi Department Store and its female staff, 1874-1937” Gender, Space, and the City in Global History Institute of Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo, Japan
October 28–29, 2017 Invited
“Spaces for Socializing: Emergence and Development of Women-only Gatherings in pre-World-War-II Tokyo, Japan.” 2017 Asian Studies Conference Japan Rikkyo University, Tokyo, Japan
July 8–9, 2017 Abstract reviewed
“Modern, Urban, and Ephemeral: Vernacular Architecture in Japan.” 2017 Society of Architectural Historians International Conference Technology & Innovation Centre, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland
June 7–11, 2017 With Kosei Hatsuda Abstract reviewed
“Socializing and Placemaking of Middle-Class Women in Tokyo, Japan, 1868–1937.” 2016 American Folklore Society/International Society for Folk Narrative Research Joint Annual Meeting Hyatt Regency Miami, FL
October 19–22, 2016 Abstract reviewed
“Gendered Politics of Space: Interpreting the Campuses for Women’s Higher Education in Pre-WWII Tokyo as a Record of Negotiation.” 2016 Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL
October 14–16, 2016 Abstract reviewed
“The Gendered Spatial Politics in Modern Japan: A Case Study of the Women's Specialized School Campuses in Pre-WWII Tokyo.” The 8th Biennial Urban History Association Conference Corboy Law Center, Loyola University Chicago, IL
October 13–16, 2016 Abstract reviewed
“The Gendered Landscapes of Higher Education: Interpreting the Campuses of Women’s Specialized Schools in Pre-WWII Tokyo, Japan as 'Negotiated Space.'” 2016 Vernacular Architecture Forum Conference Durham Convention Center, Durham, NC
June 1–4, 2016 Abstract reviewed
“Climate, Culture, and Vernacular Architecture.” 1st Hermeneutics of Landscapes Seminar Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Kanazawa, Japan
March 11, 2016 Invited In Japanese
“'Context' in Vernacular Architecture Studies and Its Connections to Landscapes and Infrastructure Studies.” 2015 Conference for Architecture and Infrastructure Environment, Japan Society of Civil Engineers Kogakuin University, Tokyo, Japan
December 11–13, 2015 Abstract reviewed In Japanese
“Vector Ecologies, Spatial Encounters, and Gender Enactments: A Historical Ethnography of Women’s Placemaking in Tokyo, Japan, after the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake.” 2015 American Folklore Society Annual Meeting Westin Long Beach, CA
October 14–17, 2015 Abstract reviewed
“Placemaking as Performance: Boulevard Inn in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as a Case Study.” 2015 Vernacular Architecture Forum Conference Roosevelt University, Chicago, IL
June 3–7, 2015 Abstract reviewed
“Methodology of Vernacular Architectural History and Its Recent Development: Architectural History as Part of Urban History.” 19th Behavior in Networks Seminar: Examining the Potential of Urban Morphology in the History of Architecture and Infrastructure University of Tokyo, Japan
January 31, 2015 Invited In Japanese
“In the Backstage: Occupational Affects in Making a Place for Holiday Eating at Boulevard Inn, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.” 2014 American Folklore Society Annual Meeting Santa Fe Convention Center, NM
November 5–8, 2014 Abstract reviewed
“Reconstructing Place from Olfactory Narratives: North Downer Avenue in the Historic Water Tower Neighborhood, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.” 2014 Oral History Association Annual Meeting Madison Concourse Hotel, WI
October 8–12, 2014 Abstract reviewed
“Identifying “Common” Places as Cultural Resources: An Experimental Study on the Transmission of People’s Systems to Evaluate Vernacular Places.” 2013 American Folklore Society Annual Meeting Omni Hotel Providence, RI
October 16–19, 2013 Abstract reviewed
“Methodology of Vernacular Architectural History: A Case Study of the 2013 Buildings-Landscapes-Cultures Field School at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.” 17th Behavior in Networks Seminar: Understanding and Applying The History of Urban Disasters and the Process of Landscape Formation University of Tokyo, Japan
October 16–19, 2013 Invited In Japanese
“A Study on the Values and Meanings of Place in Networks.” 17th Behavior in Networks Seminar: 45th Conference for Infrastructure Planning and Management Kyoto University, Japan
October 16–19, 2013 With Eiji Hato Abstract reviewed In Japanese
Distinguished Dissertation Fellowship Graduate School, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, WI
2017–18
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation/Humanities Without Walls National Pre-doctoral Fellowship Humanities Without Walls Consortium, Urbana-Champaign, IL
2017
Scott Opler Graduate Student Fellowship Society of Architectural Historians, Chicago, IL
2017
Travel Subsidiary for Workshop "Reading Place in Edo & Tokyo" UCLA/Waseda University Yanai Tadashi Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities, Los Angeles, CA
2016
Gerald L. Davis Travel Award American Folklore Society, Bloomington, IN
2015, 16
Bob Greenstreet Honorary Scholarship Department of Architecture, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, WI
2015
Pamela H. Simpson Presenter’s Fellowship Vernacular Architecture Forum, Harrisonburg, VA
2015
Distinguished Graduate Student Fellowship Graduate School, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, WI
2014–15
Scholarship for Long-Term Graduate Study Abroad Japan Student Services Organization, Tokyo, Japan
2014–17 Declined 2014–15
Presenter Registration and Membership Waiver Oral History Association, Atlanta, GA
2014
Sponsored Student Scholarship Humanities Intensive Learning and Teaching, College Park, MD
2014
Digital Humanities Lab Training Award Digital Humanities Lab, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, WI
2014
Graduate School Travel Grant University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, WI
2013, 14, 15, 16
PhD in Architecture Program Travel Grant University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, WI
2013, 14, 15
Japan-United States Fulbright Graduate Scholarship Japan-United States Educational Commission, Tokyo, Japan
2012–14
21st Century Study Abroad Fellowship 21st Century Cultural and Academic Foundation, Tokyo, Japan
2012–13 Declined
“Roof in Traditional Japanese Architecture.” - CMP2331: Japanese Arts A, History of Japanese Art Fall 2016 Rikkyo University, Tokyo, Japan
December 7, 2016 Lecture
“Space and Gender.” - ARCH 302: Architecture and Human Behavior Spring 2015 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, WI
April 14, 2015 Lecture
Course Design of “Folklore and Ethnography of Vernacular Places.” - In GRAD 803: Teaching and Learning in College: Reflections on Theory and Practice Spring 2015 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, WI
2015
“Method Workshop in Humanities Programming.” Digital Humanities Lab, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, WI
September 29, 2014 With Trevor Berman Workshop
Graduate Teaching Assistant in Architecture - ARCH 301: Architectural Structures and Construction Spring 2014 - ARCH 303: Architecture and Environmental Response Fall 2013 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, WI
2013–14
Architectural Designer Upsetters Architects, Tokyo, Japan
2009–11
Architectural Intern Sasaki Architects, Tokyo, Japan
2006
A full CV and references are available upon request. Please feel free to message me.