Research Interests:

Critical pedagogy, Multilingual/multicultural education, Heritage language education

Extensive reading, Language and culture in language teaching, Transnational/Japanese language literature, 

Conference Proceedings:

Zainichi Koreans and Japan as a Diverse Society: Learning and Identity in an Intermediate Japanese Course. Proceedings of the 27th Princeton Japanese Pedagogy Forum. 212-225.

Efforts towards Diversity and Inclusion in Material Development. Proceedings of the 2020 SEATJ Conference. 29-48.

Diversity and Inclusion for Japanese Education: What we can learn from a negotiated syllabus for a course designed for Japanese heritage language learners.  Proceedings of the 25th Princeton Japanese Pedagogy Forum. 304-318.

Conference Presentations: 

“Zainichi Koreans and Japan as a Diverse Society: Learning and Identity in an Intermediate Japanese Course.” The 27^th Princeton Japanese Pedagogy Forum, Princeton, NJ, May 2021.

“Efforts to incorporate social justice topics into elementary/intermediate Japanese course: outcomes, challenges, and future plans.” The 67^th Annual Northeast Conference of the Teaching of Foreign Languages (NECTFL), April 2021.

“Japanese language education through the lens of social justice using Zainichi Korean’s Children’s Story.” presented on panel “How to approach Social justice topics in elementary and intermediate Japanese courses” at The American Association Teachers of Japanese (AATJ) 2021 Virtual Spring Conference, March 2021.

 “Efforts to Develop Social Justice Theme in Japanese Language Education.” presented at The ACTFL 2021 Virtual Conference, November 2020.

“Issues of diversity and inclusion in material development.” The 35^th Annual Conference of the Southeastern Association of Teachers of Japanese (SEATJ), Memphis, TN, February 2020.

“How to incorporate social justice topics into elementary/intermediate courses.” presented on panel “Teaching Language for Social Justice in Globalized Japan.” The International Year of Indigenous Languages 2019: Perspectives Conference, Purdue University Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne, IN, November 2019.

“Diversity and Inclusion for Japanese Education: What we can learn from a negotiated syllabus for a course designed for Japanese heritage language learners.” The 25^th Princeton Japanese Pedagogy Forum, Princeton, NJ, May 12, 2019

“Integrating Social Justice Topics into Elementary and Intermediate Japanese Language Courses: Toward a deeper understanding of contemporary Japanese culture and society.” presented on panel “Towards an Understanding of the Increasingly Diverse Japanese Society: Why Cover Social Justice Topics in Japanese Language Education? How should they be incorporated?” The AATJ 2019 Annual Spring Conference, Denver, CO, March 2019.

“Why do we still avoid taboo topics in Japanese class? – Social justice: essential content for Japanese language education in the 21^st century.” The 28^th Annual Conference of the Japanese Language Teachers Association of New England (JLTANE), Dartmouth College, MA, August 2018.

“Time for Change: How can we approach and integrate social justice topics in the Japanese language classroom?” presented on panel “Leaving Our ‘Comfort Zone’: Incorporating Social Justice in Japanese Language Classes” The Association for Asian Studies (AAS) 2018 Annual Conference, Washington, DC, March 2018.

“Negotiated Syllabus for Teaching Japanese Heritage Language Learners” presented in the session “Tools to Improve Literacy and Empowerment.” The ACTFL 2016 Annual Conference, Boston, MA, November 2016.

“A Negotiated Syllabus for Japanese Heritage Language Learners: An attempt to motivate JHL learners to develop reading and writing skills in Japanese.” The AATJ 2016 Spring Conference, Seattle, WA, March 2016.

 “Writing Task for Elementary Learners as a Communication Activity Using Blogs.” The AATJ 2015 Spring Conference, Chicago, IL, March 2015.

 “Searching for the Third Space through Japanese Language/Transnational Literature: What the New Genre Can Offer to Japanese Language Learners.” presented on panel “Linguistic, Cultural, and Identity Diversity in Japanese Language Education.” The AATJ 2014 Spring Conference, Philadelphia, PA, March 2014.

 “Critical pedagogy and the use of Nihongo Bungaku: Transnational literature in Japanese Language education – An experiment in an advanced Japanese course.” The AATJ 2013 Spring Conference, San Diego, CA, March 2013.

“Between JHL and JFL Courses.” The 12th Northeast Council of Teachers of Japanese (NECTJ) Japanese Heritage Language Conference, New York, NY, August 2012.  

 “Use of Japanese Language Literature/Transnational Literature in Advanced Japanese Course.” The 12^th JLTANE Conference, Trinity College, CT, June 2012.

“Bilingual Writing Proficiency Research –the Case of the Boston Japanese Language School.” The 2011 Mother Tongue, Heritage Language, and Bilingual Education (MHB) Research Conference, Kyoto, August 2011. 

“Pilot Research for Launching ‘Hosyūkō Teachers Support Group’.” The 2011 Mother Tongue, Heritage Language, and Bilingual Education (MHB) Research Conference, Kyoto, August 2011.  

Course Development Grant (Documentary Film) $2,000, Brown University, 2020

SPRINT summer student internship, Brown University, 2020

Japan Teaching Materials Purchase Grant $1,000, Japanese Foundation, 2020

Engaged Course Development Mini-Grant for Community Engagement $430, Brown University, 2020

Brown University Campus-Based Grants for a project "Toward Diversity and Inclusion: Incorporating Social Justice Topics into Japanese Language Teaching" $1,800, Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning, Brown University, 2019.

Conference Travel Grant $700, Center for East Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania, 2016, 2017.

East Asian Languages and Literatures Department Travel Award $1,000, University of Hawaii at Mānoa, 2016.

College of Languages, Linguistics & Literature Faculty Development Award $300, University of Hawaii at Mānoa for book purchase, 2016.

Travel Award from University Research Council $1,000, University of Hawaii at Mānoa, 2014, 2015.

Kathryn Davis Fellowship for Summer Program $3,000, Middlebury College, 2012.

2^nd prize for essay “Between Different Cultures” for an essay contest sponsored by Hokubei Mainichi Newspaper, San Francisco, CA, 2003.

American Council on the Teachers of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)

American Association of Teachers of Japanese (AATJ)

Northeast Council of Teachers of Japanese (NECTJ)

Naemi McPherson has taught all levels of Japanese courses including JAPN 0500 and 0600 at Brown.  

She has been working on material development to incorporate social justice topics into Japanese language education.  Her current project also includes writing stories for extensive reading.