Cassie Miura

Cassie M. Miura (she/her) is Henri and Tomoye Takahashi Distinguished Endowed Chair in Nikkei Studies and Assistant Professor in Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University. She also serves as co-director of the Edison Uno Initiative for Nikkei and Uchinaanchu Studies and on the Board of Directors for The Nichi Bei Foundation.  

Miura is a yonsei or fourth generation Okinawan and Japanese American born on Kauaʻi, Hawaiʻi and raised in the Pacific Northwest. She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Michigan. Her work has been published in Amerasia Journal, UchinaAmerican Anthology of Art and Literature (Bess Press 2026), and Interventions in Asian/American Rhetoric (MLA Press 2027).  

Prior to coming to SFSU, Miura was Associate Teaching Professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington Tacoma where she served as Director of Grants and Special Projects for the Office of Equity and Inclusion and Co-PI of the AAPI THRIVE Project, a grant funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISI) program.

Miura is currently working on a monograph about the contemporary revitalization of Okinawan ancestral tattoos or hajichi. 

• Ph.D. University of Michigan, Comparative Literature
• B.A. Portland State University, English

Okinawan diaspora, Nikkei Studies, Asian American literature, affect theory and emotion.

AAS 216 Introduction to Asian American Literature

AAS 330 Nikkei in the United States

AAS 332 Japanese American Literature

AAS 338 Okinawan American Heritage and Culture

AAS 582 Asian American Women’s Literature and Culture

Miura, Cassie M. Faculty/Undergraduate Research Initiative Award (FURI) with Samantha Kaneshiro, San Francisco State University, $1,000.00, 2025.

Miura, Cassie M. Founder’s Endowment Award, University of Washington Tacoma, $10,000.00, 2024.

Endo, Rachel (PI), Cassie M. Miura (Co-PI), Tanya Velasquez (Co-PI), “AAPI THRIVE Project,” U.S. Department of Education AANAPISI (Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution) Program, $2,000,000.00, 2022-2027 .

Proquest Distinguished Dissertation Award, University of Michigan, $1,000.00, 2017.

The Nichi Bei Foundation, Board of Directors, 2026-present

Northern California Okinawa Kenjin-Kai, member, 2025-present

Edison Uno Initiative for Nikkei and Uchinaanchu Studies, Co-Director with Wesley Ueunten

Department of Asian American Studies Events Committee

Nikkei Student Union, faculty advisor

College of Ethnic Studies Student Advisory Committee

• Miura, Cassie M. “Feeling Asian in Post-Pandemic America: Affect and Rhetorical Constructions of Asian American Identity.” Interventions in Asian/American Rhetoric Eds. Amy J. Wan and Morris Young. Modern Language Association Press, 2027.
• Miura, Cassie M. “Ichichibushi.” UchinaAmerican: Anthology of Okinawan American Art and Literature. Eds. Laura Kina, Lee A. Tonouchi, Wesley Ueunten. Bess Press, 2026. 
• Miura, Cassie M. “Yuntaku Interview with Laura Kina: On Being Part of Many Universes All at Once.” Amerasia Journal. In press, 2026. 
• Miura, Cassie M. “Toward an Understanding of Uchinaanchu and Japanese American Experiences in Hawaiʻi.” Review of Born Again Uchinanchu: Celebrating Hawaii’s Chibariyo!, by Karleen Chinen and Legacies of Incarceration: The World War II Experience of Hawaiʻi’s Japanese by Kelli Y. Nakamura. Nichi Bei News, 1 January 2026.