Danica Truscott, PhD, is a scholar and teacher of Japanese literature and culture, specializing in its early and classical periods (710-1185). She is currently employed as the Preceptor on Classical Japanese at Harvard University, having received her doctorate in Asian Languages and Cultures from UCLA in 2022.
Dr. Truscott’s research interests include women’s literary history, gender performance in poetry, and the reception and translation of premodern texts in Japan and abroad. Her current book project, Mapping Women in Man’yōshū, is a feminist rereading of Japan’s oldest vernacular poetic anthology centered on its most represented woman poet, the Ōtomo Lady at Sakanoue (fl. mid-eighth century).
In addition to her research, Dr. Truscott has taught several courses at UCLA and Harvard, from a general education course on anime to classical Japanese grammar and advanced reading seminars. She has taught students at all levels, from first year undergraduates to doctoral students.
Dr. Truscott’s research in the past has been generously supported by dissertation fellowships from the Japan Foundation and UCLA’s Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies, as well as a postdoctoral fellowship from the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard. She has given presentations and talks in English and Japanese at various institutions, including Brown, Princeton, Stanford, Aoyama Gakuin, and Waseda.
Dr. Truscott is available for guest lectures and presentations, whether on women’s writing and poetry or on Japanese literature, history, and culture in general. She is also available to provide translation services between Japanese and English, including texts written in classical Japanese and literary Chinese. Please inquire here to discuss possible collaborations, scheduling, and rates.
