Shota Iwasaki is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia with a specialization in modern Japanese literature and visual culture. His dissertation examines representations of speech disabilities and disorders in the literature and visual arts of modern Japan, with a focus on the cultural locations of speech pathologies in the broader context of the social, historical, and political environment from which they emerged. He is also interested in critical disability studies and crip theory. He uses a computer-generated voice as his alternative means of communication.