Ida Yoshinaga is an academic professor, journalist and scholar of film, television, and media studies focusing on genre theory, the pedagogy of creative writing, cultural studies, indigenous narrative, and cinematic production studies. Yoshinaga is a former lecturer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa where she taught for the Departments of Ethnic Studies and English.
She is currently positioned as the assistant professor of Science-Fiction Film at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Literature, Media, and Communication.
Early Life
She was born in Honolulu and raised in Wailuku on the island of Maui where she graduated from Baldwin High School. She identifies as a sansei *
Education
Yoshinaga earned a bachelor’s degree in Asian Studies, master’s degree in Sociology and creative writing, and a Ph.D. in creative writing all at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. During her tenure at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, she specialized in challenging the conventional boundaries of genre.
Philosophy
She is a hybrid scholar interested in story development, breaking the conventional norms of genre, narrative and aesthetic traditions, cross-cultural adaptation, and the politics of cinematic pre-production and how they connect to the form of screenplay.
Yoshinaga served as a journalist who worked as a freelancer for The Hawai’i Herald, and as a staff reporter for Business Tokyo magazine. Her articles analyze the societal notions of gender, the traditional forms of the Sci-Fi and Fantasy genre, the exploration of cultural politics, post colonialism, and inequality in the film industry.
Published Work
Uneven Futures: Strategies for Community Survival from Speculative Fiction (2022)
The Routledge Companion to Gender and Science Fiction (2022)
The Routledge Companion to Media and Fairytale Cultures (2018)
Journals
Narrative Culture, Marvels & Tales, Science Fiction Studies
The New Ray Bradbury Review
The Journal of the Sussex Center for Folklore
Science Fiction Film and Television
References
Citations
1. Yoshinaga, Ida. "Disney's Moana, the Colonial Screenplay, and Indigenous Labor Extraction in Hollywood Fantasy Films." Narrative Culture 6.2 (2019): 188-215.
2. Engel , Sarah. “On Science Fiction and Representation: An Interview with Assistant LMC Professor, Ida Yoshinaga.” CoLab, Georgia Institute of Technology , 2023
3. Yoshinaga, Ida. "Seven inquiries on the antediluvian labour market of cinematic'sf auteurs' and Blade Runner 2049." Science Fiction Film and Television 13.1 (2020): 128-134.
4. Tech, Georgia. “Faculty Spotlight: Assistant Professor Ida Yoshinaga.” School of Literature, Media, and Communication, Georgia Institute of Technology, 11 Feb. 2022,