Erica Kanesaka, who completed her PhD at the University of Wisconsin—Madison in Spring 2021, arrived at Emory in Fall 2022 to begin teaching in the English department. Kanesaka was hired in 2021 and spent a year as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Brown University before beginning her career at Emory.

With her arrival, the number of courses offered in Asian American Studies doubled. Students interested in Asian American literary and cultural studies could begin learning from her expertise. In the coming years, she would teach and mentor a large number of students interested in not only literary and cultural studies but also racial and sexual politics.