Former Home Department: East Asian Studies (EAS)
SLAT Areas of Specialization: Linguistic Dimensions of L2 Learning, Sociocultural Dimensions of L2 Learning
Dr. Karatsu’s research addresses topics in the fields of Conversation Analysis, Discourse Analysis, and Sociolinguistics. In particular, she is interested in Narrative Study, Study of Conversational Storytelling, Presentation of Identities/ Selves, Grammar in Interaction, and Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language. Her research is empirical and qualitative analyses of naturally occurring conversational interaction (both verbal and nonverbal behavior). Her goal is to be inter-disciplinary across Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, Sociology, and Social Psychology.
She received her BA in Aesthetics and History of Art (Asian Art History) and BA in Law (Political Science) from Keio University, her MA in Japanese Linguistics from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, and her PhD in Japanese Linguistics from University of Minnesota. She was an affiliated faculty member in the interdisciplinary graduate program of Second Language Acquisition and Teaching (SLAT).