Masami Toku

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Masami Toku is a Japanese scholar and professor of art education at California State University, Chico (CSUC) since 1999. She received her BFA from the school of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in 1992, and an MA (1994) and Ed.D,/Ph.D. in art education (1998) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC(opens in new window)).

Toku's research interest is the cross-cultural study of children's artistic and aesthetic developments in their pictorial worlds and how visual popular culture influences children's visual literacy. She is working internationally as a curator, educator, publisher, researcher, and speaker. Toku has published numerous publications including articles, book reviews, book chapters, exhibition catalogs, and books in English and Japanese since coming to CSU, Chico in 1999. Her current books are Visual Culture and Literacy: Art Appreciation from Multicultural Perspectives (Kendall Hunt, 2011 & 2013), Art, Teaching and Learning (Kendall Hunt 2014 & 2019), and International Perspectives on Shojo and Shojo Manga: The Influence of Girl Culture (Routledge Research in Cultural and Media Studies, 2015). A new book of Manga!: Visual Pop-Culture in ARTs Education has just been released by InSEA(opens in new window) (International Society for Education through Art).

She is the general director of the international touring exhibition project Girls' Power! Shojo Manga! and has given her talks at eighteen countries in Asia, Europe, and North, Central & South America (2005-present). Due to her international contributions to art educational society, Toku received the 2008 USSEA (United States Society for Education through Art) International Ziegfeld Award, which is given to one distinguished international scholar each year in the US. She also received an Outstanding Teacher's Award (2010-11) at CSU-Chico.

Since 2009, Toku has also been the executive director of NPO Amamina, a nonprofit organization of culture and education supported by the educational bureau of Amami City, Japan. With the NPO, she continues to develop a bridge between CSUC and cultural & educational institutions in Japan.