• Ph.D., Southern Illinois University Carbondale
• M.S., Southern Illinois University Carbondale
• M.A., Aichi University of Education, Japan
• B.A., Aichi University of Education, Japan

• Interracial/Intercultural communication
• Cultural adaptation
• Intercultural identity
• Anti-racism education

Dr. Tankei-Aminian's scholarly expertise is in the area of interracial/intercultural communication, specifically cultural adaption, intercultural identity, anti-racism education, English linguistic neoimperialism, and exophonic autoethnography. As a scholar, she engages in her research of intercultural communication from critical perspective in the direction toward social justice, equity, humanization, and peace in the U.S. as well as in the global contexts. She uses various methods in her scholarly work, such as personal narrative, autoethnography, performance, and filmmaking. As an educator, she aims at liberatory education, which empowers students by fostering their critical consciousness: to be able to ask more questions; make conscious choices; and have agency to transform the world in the direction of social justice, equity, humanization, and peace.

Interracial/Intercultural Communication (SPC 3721)
Critical Race Theory in Communication (SPC 3722)
Japanese Language and Communication (SPC 3723)
Senior Seminar (SPC 4932)

Selected Publications:

• "Unmasking the Hegemony of English: Exploring English Neo-Imperialism and the Internationalization of Whiteness." Communication and Identity in the Classroom: Intersectional Perspectives of Critical Pedagogy, Lexington Books, 2021.
• "Tongue Does Matter: Examining the Impact of English Neo-Imperialism Through Exophonic Autoethnography." Critical Autoethnography: Intersecting Cultural Identities in Everyday Life, 2nd ed, Routledge, 2021.
• “On Becoming Japersican: A Personal Narrative of Cultural Adaptation, Intercultural Identity and Transnationalism.” Globalizing Intercultural Communication: Reader, Sage Publication, 2016.
• "Community Autoethnography: Critical Visceral Way of ‘Doing’ Intercultural Relationships” with Pensoneu-Conway, Sandra L., Satoshi Toyosaki, and Farshad Aminian-Tankei. Case Studies in Intercultural Dialogue, Kendall Hunt Publishing, 2015.
• “On Becoming Japerican.” Writer, Director, and Performer, Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies 9. 3 (2013)
• “Cross-cultural Adaptation at the Intersection of Power and Oppression.” Kotoba to Komyunikeishon no foram (A Forum on Language and Communication). Kaitakusha, March, 2011.
• “America ni oite kiki ni tyokumen suru hikahujinkei gakusei to gaikokujin ryuugakusei— ootoesunogurafii wo mochiita kaikaku e no kokoromi” (“Non-Whites and International Students At Risk: An Auto-Ethnographic Challenge in Action.”). Teaching Japanese as a ForeignLanguage and Cross-cultural Understanding 2 (2003)
  • Ayako Hanake (2012) examines Japanese academic literature on autoethnography and states this work as “probably the first work in Japanese that utilized autoethnography as a methodology.”

Selected Creative Works:

• "To Live: A Story of One Long-term Dialysis Patient" (2020)
  • Co-director, co-writer, co-editor, narrator and translator
  • Digital Video Documentary 30 Minutes
• "What Would You Like to Become? Answers from Iranian School Children" (2008)
  • Assistant director & still-photographer
  • Digital Video Documentary 23 Minutes

Recipient: "Eagles R.I.S.E.: In Pursuit of Social Justice, Maintaining Resilience & Integrity while Striving for Equality” from FGCU's Office of Multicultural and Leadership Development, Florida Gulf Coast University, 2016

• Short tribute film