Author and Educator
Second Story Press / University of Toronto
Dr. Lara Jean Okihiro is a writer, researcher, and educator of mixed Japanese Canadian heritage. Intrigued by the power and magic of stories, and after working at the University of Toronto Libraries for several years, she earned a Master’s (Goldsmiths, University of London, UK) and Doctorate (University of Toronto) in English. She has lectured and published internationally on literature, the Japanese Canadian internment, racism, social justice, memory, trauma, education, and carrying the lessons of the past into the future. Lara is the author of Obaasan’s Boots, a children’s novel based on her family’s experience of being uprooted, incarcerated, and dispossessed by the government, and co-written with her cousin, Janis Bridger (Second Story Press). She is currently completing another book, Lost Objects: Literature and the Dispossession of Incarcerated Nikkei (McGill-Queens University Press). Besides teaching in the university, she's also volunteered in elementary school classrooms, and enjoys reading and working with students and people of all ages.
Saturday, January 20, 2024
1:00pm – 2:00pm EST