Jennifer Noji is a PhD candidate in the Department of Comparative Literature at UCLA.  She is completing a Graduate Concentration in Asian American Studies and a Graduate Certificate in Writing Pedagogy.  She works in the fields of memory studies, ethnic studies, narrative studies, and human rights, and her research interests include forced displacement and incarceration, race and empire, solidarity, and social activism.  Her dissertation project, titled The Implicated Reader: Politics of Address in Literatures of Human Rights, explores how literature can employ particular formal and rhetorical techniques to implicate readers in political violence and evoke their political responsibility.  Jennifer is also a co-founder of the UCLA Working Group in Memory Studies, which brings together faculty and graduate students from across the humanities and social sciences who are interested in cultural memory studies.  In addition to her academic work, Jennifer works with several Japanese American community organizations, including Nikkei Progressives and the National Nikkei Coalition for Reparations, which support and advocate for the rights of different marginalized groups and people.

Education

  • B.A. in Comparative Literature with a minor in German from Rutgers University
  • M.A. in Comparative Literature from UCLA

Research

  • Human rights: examining narratives of forced removal and exclusion, racism, and rightlessness
  • Memory activism: assessing how contemporary social movements mobilize memories of past injustice
  • Political responsibility: exploring how literature can implicate readers in legacies of injustice

Publications

Articles

  • Accepted with revisions. “The Implicated Reader: Second-Person Address in Novels of US Imperialism.” Narrative.
  • Forthcoming March 2024. “‘Hooked by the Mouth’: The Implicated Reader’s Response to Kincaid’s A Small Place.” Feeling Implicated: Affect, Responsibility, Solidarity (II), Parallax, 30.1.
  • January 2023. “Beyond ‘True’ and ‘False’: Teaching Students to Read the News Critically.” Composition Studies: FEN Blog, https://compstudiesjournal.com/2023/01/30/beyond-true-and-false-teaching-students-to-read-the-news-critically/.
  • December 2022. “Implicated Subjects and Memory Activism.” Co-authored with Michael Rothberg for The Routledge Handbook of Memory Activism, pp. 80-86.

Field of Interest

Asian American Studies, Cultural Memory Studies, Human Rights, Ethnic Literature, Narrative theory, Solidarity, Activism, Displacement, Camps & Incarceration

Languages

German, Japanese, Italian

Teaching

  • Spring 2023: Seminar Instructor, Comparative Literature – “495: Critical Pedagogy & Successful Teaching Strategies”
  • Winter 2023: Teaching Fellow, Asian American Studies – “Intro to Asian American & Pacific Islander History”
  • Spring 2022: Seminar Instructor, UCLA Cluster Program – “Fictions of Human Rights”
  • Winter 2022: Teaching Associate, Comparative Literature – “Literature and Displacement: Migrants, Refugees, Exiles”
  • Fall 2021: Teaching Associate, Comparative Literature – “Exploring Great Books from Age of Enlightenment to the 20th Century”
  • Spring 2020: Seminar Instructor, UCLA Cluster Program – “US Incarceration Systems: What is a Camp?”
  • Winter 2020: Teaching Assistant, UCLA Cluster Program – “Political Violence in the Modern World”
  • Fall 2019: Teaching Assistant, UCLA Cluster Program – “Political Violence in the Modern World”