Aya Tanaka

Aya Tanaka joined Stern in 2011 and currently teaches Commerce and Culture, as well as Business and Its Publics. She earned her PhD at Rutgers University, where her dissertation focused on historicism and historiography in travel accounts and fiction in eighteenth-century French literature. She has also held fellow and teaching positions at Williams College and Mount Holyoke College.

Prior to her doctoral studies, Prof. Tanaka worked as assistant equity strategist for BBVA Securities, providing political and economic analysis of Latin American markets to US institutional investors.

She also holds Masters degrees in International Finance and Business from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, and in International Political Economy from American University. She received her bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from Mount Holyoke College with a double major in International Relations and French.>

Research Interests

• Business in Literature
• International Trade & Cultural Exchange
• Pre-1800 Travel Literature
• Historiography and Literature

Courses Taught

• Business & Its Publics: Discourse
• Commerce & Culture

Academic Background

PhD, French / Comparative Literature, 2008
Rutgers University

MA, International Business & Finance, 1997
Columbia University

MA, International Political Economy, 1995
American University

BA, International Relation and French, 1994
Mount Holyoke College

Companies

• Adjunct Professor NYU Stern School of Business (2010)
• Instructor Bard College Language & Thinking Program (2018 — 2018)
• Kids Welcome Columnist @ SeriousEats: New York Serious Eats (2011 — 2011)
• Part-Time Lecturer Rutgers University (2010 — 2010)
• Bolin Fellow Williams College (2007 — 2008)
• Visiting Instructor Mount Holyoke College (2007 — 2007)
• Part-Time Lecturer and Teaching Assistant Rutgers University School of Arts & Sciences (2001 — 2005)
• Assistant Latin American Equity Strategist BBVA (1997 — 2000)