Bio

Indra Levy received her Ph.D. in modern Japanese literature from Columbia University in 2001. She is the author of Sirens of the Western Shore: the Westernesque Femme Fatale, Translation, and Vernacular Style in Modern Japanese Literature (Columbia, 2006) and editor of Translation in Modern Japan (Routledge, 2009). She has served as Executive Director for the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies (IUC) since 2010. In 2022, she was named the inaugural recipient of the Irene Hirano Inouye Award from the Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies for her contributions to Japanese Studies. Her current work focuses on humor in Japanese literature, performance, and translation from the late 19th century to the mid-20th. Her research interests include modern Japanese literature and criticism; critical translation studies; gender and language; modern Japanese performance, especially in the Meiji and Taishō eras; and modern Japanese women’s intellectual history.

Academic Appointments

Administrative Appointments

  • Visiting Associate Professor, Waseda University (2023 - 2023)
  • Visiting Associate Professor, Waseda University (2022 - 2022)
  • Director of Graduate Studies, Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures, Stanford University (2020 - Present)
  • Senior Fellow (by courtesy), Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (2019 - Present)
  • Faculty Director, Translation Studies Minor (2015 - 2019)
  • Associate Professor (by courtesy), Department of Comparative Literature, Stanford University (2012 - Present)
  • Associate Professor, Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures, Stanford University (2011 - Present)
  • Executive Director, Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies (2010 - Present)
  • Assistant Professor, Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures, Stanford University (2004 - 2011)
  • Assistant Professor, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, Rutgers University (2000 - 2004)

Honors & Awards

  • Irene Hirano Inouye Memorial Award, Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies, UCLA (2022)
  • Hellman Junior Faculty Fellow, Stanford University (2007-08)
  • Faculty Fellow, Kinki University International Center for Human Sciences (2003-06)
  • Shincho Fellowship, Columbia University (1996-98)
  • Fulbright Fellowship for Doctoral Research, Fulbright IIE (1993-95)
  • Javits Fellowship for Graduate Research, United States Department of Education (1991-93)

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations

  • Steering Committee, Center for East Asian Studies, Stanford University (2011 - Present)
  • Translation Studies Minor exploratory committee, Stanford University (2011 - 2012)
  • Admissions Committee, Center for East Asian Studies M.A. program, Stanford University (2010 - 2010)
  • Steering committee, Japan Fund (2009 - Present)
  • Member, American Comparative Literature Association (2008 - Present)
  • Admissions Committee, Center for East Asian Studies M.A. program, Stanford University (2008 - 2008)
  • Curriculum review for graduate and undergraduate programs, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures (formerly Asian Languages), Stanford University (2008 - 2008)
  • Screener, International Dissertation Field Research Fellowship Program, Social Science Research Council (2008 - 2008)
  • Admissions Committee, Center for East Asian Studies M.A. program, Stanford University (2007 - 2007)
  • Screener, ALTA Travel Fellowship Award (2007 - 2007)
  • Graduate Studies Advisor, Department of Asian Languages, Stanford University (2006 - 2008)
  • Second-tier reader, 2006 National Translation Award, American Literary Translators Association (2006 - 2006)
  • Member, American Comparative Literature Association (2005 - Present)
  • Screener and interviewer, Monbukagakusho Scholarship for Graduate Study in Japan, Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (2005 - 2005)
  • Faculty Advisor, Japanese Culture Association, Rutgers College (2002 - 2003)
  • Advisor, Senior Honors Thesis in Comparative Literature, Rutgers University (2002 - 2002)
  • Committee Member, SAT II Japanese Test, Educational Testing Service, Princeton (2002 - 2002)
  • Curriculum Committee, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, Rutgers University (2002 - 2002)
  • Screener, International Dissertation Field Research Fellowship Program, Social Science Research Council (2002 - 2002)
  • Judge, New Jersey Statewide Japanese Speech and Skit Contest, Seton Hall University (2001 - 2001)
  • Member, Modern Language Association (2000 - Present)
  • Member, Assocation for Japanese Literary Studies (1999 - Present)
  • Member, Association for Asian Studies (1990 - Present)

Program Affiliations

  • Center for East Asian Studies

Professional Education

  • Ph.D., Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Modern Japanese Literature (2001)
  • M.Phil, Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Modern Japanese Literature (1993)
  • M.A., Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Modern Japanese Literature (1993)
  • B.A., Columbia College in the City of New York, East Asian Studies (1998)

Contact

Additional Info

Links

2024-25 Courses

Stanford Advisees

All Publications

  • Playing in the Shadows: Fictions of Race and Blackness in Postwar Japanese Literature (Book Review) JOURNAL OF JAPANESE STUDIES Book Review Authored by: Levy, I. 2022; 48 (2): 415-418

    View details for DOI 10.1353/jjs.2022.0043

    View details for Web of Science ID 000864453600008

  • Meitei as Jokester-Theorist in Natsume Soseki’s I am a Cat (Wagahai wa neko de aru) Crossing the Borders to Modernity: Fictional Characters as Representations of Alternative Concepts of Life in Meiji Literature (1868-1912) Weber, C. edited by Köhn , S. Harrassowitz Verlag. 2022
  • Newspaper Journalism, Realism, and Modernism in Japan: From Kanagaki Robun to Kawabata Yasunari Dibur Levy, I., Young, T. K. 2021
  • "Comedy" Can Be Deadly: Or, How Mark Twain Killed Hara Hoitsuan JOURNAL OF JAPANESE STUDIES Levy, I. 2011; 37 (2): 325-349

    View details for Web of Science ID 000294276700003

  • Translation in Modern Japan edited by Levy, I. Routledge. 2010
  • Sirens of the Western Shore: the Westernesque femme fatale, translation and vernacular style in modern Japanese literature Levy, I. Columbia University Press. 2006
  • “Vernacular Writing, Translation, and the Formation of Modern Japanese Literature” Cambridge History of Japanese Literature Levy, I. edited by Shirane, H., Suzuki, T., Lurie, D. Cambridge University Press. 2016
  • Translation, vernacular style, and the Westernesque femme fatale in modern Japanese literature CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF JAPANESE LITERATURE Levy, I., Shirane, H., Suzuki, T., Lurie, D. 2016: 588-597

    View details for Web of Science ID 000378391700061

  • In Search of Nature: The Japanese Writer Tayama Katai (1872-1930). (Book Review) JOURNAL OF JAPANESE STUDIES Book Review Authored by: Levy, I. 2015; 41 (2): 410-412

    View details for DOI 10.1353/jjs.2015.0058

    View details for Web of Science ID 000358808900014

  • Kenneth G. Henshall, In Search of Nature: The Japanese Writer Tayama Katai (1872-1920) Journal of Japanese Studies Levy, I. 2015; 41 (2)
  • The Ideology of Kokugo: Nationalizing Language in Modern Japan (Book Review) JOURNAL OF JAPANESE STUDIES Book Review Authored by: Levy, I. 2012; 38 (2): 377-380

    View details for Web of Science ID 000307146500005

  • The Alien Within: Representations of the Exotic in Twentieth-Century Japanese Literature (Book Review) INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ASIAN STUDIES Book Review Authored by: Levy, I. 2011; 8 (1): 124-125

    View details for DOI 10.1017/S1479591410000410

    View details for Web of Science ID 000311162000019

  • “Laughter, the Novel, and Gender in Modern Japan.” (Kindai Nihon to warai, shōsetsu, so shite jendaa). Ekkyō suru Nihon bungaku kenkyū (New Horizons in Japanese Literary Studies: Canon Formation, Gender, and Media) Levy, I. edited by Shirane, H. Tokyo: Bensei Publishing. 2011
  • Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism edited by Levy, I., Leitch, V. 2010
  • Modern Japan and the Trialectics of Translation Translation in Modern Japan Levy, I. Routledge. 2010
  • Concealment of Politics, Politics of Concealment: The Production of "Literature" in Meiji Japan (Book Review) MONUMENTA NIPPONICA Book Review Authored by: Levy, I. 2009; 64 (1): 189-191

    View details for Web of Science ID 000267462900012

  • Engendered by Translation: Modern Japanese Literature, Vernacular Style, and the Westernesque Femme Fatale Critical Readings in Translation Studies (abridged edition) Levy, I. 2009
  • Engendered by Translation: Modern Japanese Literature, Vernacular Style, and the Westernesque Femme Fatale Translation Studies: Critical Concepts Levy, I. edited by Baker, M. 2009
  • In the beginning, there was the Word - Yanabu Akira The Review of Japanese Culture and Society Levy, I. 2008; XX
  • Modern Japan and the Trialectics of Translation The Review of Japanese Culture and Society Levy, I. 2008; XX
  • From Iro (eros) to Ai=Love: The Case of Tsubouchi Shōyō - Saeki Junko The Review of Japanese Culture and Society Levy, I. 2008; XX
  • "Onna o baikai ni gengo to iu tasha o ishiki saseru yūmoa: Ukigumo to Sanshirō o megutte.” ( Laughing at the Otherness of Language through the Medium of Women: on Ukigumo and Sanshirō) Kokubungaku Levy, I. 2006; 51 (3)
  • Against Essentialism: the Status of Difference in the Critical Writings of Yamakawa Kikue Levy, I. edited by Brown, J., Arntzen, S. 2002: 130–35
  • The Anxiety of Translation: Interlingual Seduction and Betrayal in Futabatei Shimei’s Ukigumo Levy, I. 2001: 47–60
  • “Nihon kindai bungaku to watakushi: Futabatei Shimei o megutte” (Modern Japanese Literature and Futabatei Shimei). Shunposhion (Symposium). Levy, I. 1999; 4: 19-31
  • Ributeki gendai feminizumu, senzen joseishugi, so shite Yamakawa Kikue (Women’s Lib, Prewar Feminism, and Yamakawa Kikue). Hihyō kūkan (Critical Space). Levy, I. 1996; II (8): 188-209
  • Nationalism and Écriture - Kojin Karatani Surfaces Levy, I. 1995; V201: 4-25
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8009-717X