She has been exploring the effective use of literary texts in the Japanese university classroom, producing articles on teaching English through fiction, drama and autobiographies, and also on the acquisition of reading and writing skills in academic contexts. She co-edited English through Literature (2009) and Big Dipper Writing Course (2007). Her interests include Irish prose and fiction in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Her recent publications concern the role of women characters in the works of Jonathan Swift, Maria Edgeworth and Charles Lever, and also in big house novels.