Yasuko Taoka is the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Temple University, Japan Campus. She is an expert in Latin pedagogy and classical Roman literature and philosophy, especially the works of Seneca and Fronto. Her publications include two book-length commentaries on Roman literature and many peer-reviewed articles on topics such as the contemporary reception of ancient texts, the function of letter-writing in classical literature, and the metaphorical paradigms of higher education.
Dean Taoka is currently on the Executive Council of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South, a leading North American professional organization of scholars and teachers of Greek and Roman languages and cultures. She has contributed to her field and academia by serving on committees for groups such as the Society for Classical Studies, the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing, and the Illinois Classical Conference, of which she was president from 2014-2016. She is the current editor of Teaching Classical Languages, a peer-reviewed pedagogy journal.
Prior to her arrival at TUJ, Dr. Taoka was Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities and Director of the Honors Program at Wayne State College, in the United States of America. She also served as Chair of the Department of Languages, Cultures, and International Trade at Southern Illinois University, where she earned tenure as an Associate Professor of Classics. She received her PhD and MA from the Ohio State University, where she wrote a dissertation on Seneca’s Epistulae Morales. She completed her undergraduate education at Grinnell College, where she majored in Classics. Taoka was born in Japan and raised in the United States.
Contact Information
Temple University, Japan Campus
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
1-14-29 Taishido, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Japan 154-0004 (Access)
Email: yasuko.taoka@tuj.temple.edu