Miaoling Xue received an LL.B. in International Politics from Peking University, a B.A. in International Liberal Studies from Waseda University, and an M.A. in Japanese from Washington University in St. Louis. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Asian Studies at UBC.

Her research focuses on Japanese women’s/gender history, female poets, and women in literary narratives, especially in the years between 670 and 1600. She is also interested in elements of Sinitic poetry in Japanese poets’ waka and kanshi composition. Her research project investigates the Saiō (princess-priestesses) institution in which the court chose imperial princesses and dispatched them to the Ise Shrine or the Kamo Shrines. She discusses the perceptions of noblewomen’s love, sex, and marriage by analyzing Saiō’s love poems and literary narratives that feature Saiō’s forbidden love stories. She also focuses on Saiō’s poetic capabilities and investigates members who participated in literary salons that formed around Saiō.