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Kristen Hayashi, Ph.D. is the collections manager at the Japanese American National Museum where she oversees the permanent collection. She is a public historian who has worked on museum exhibitions and historic preservation advocacy. After earning her B.A. in American Studies from Occidental College in Los Angeles and spending a year in Japan with the JET Program, she worked at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. As a result of being part of the content team for the Natural History Museum’s semi-permanent exhibition Becoming Los Angeles, she became highly engaged in research into the region’s rich history through her doctoral work in History at the University of California, Riverside. Although her interest in Los Angeles spans a multitude of subtopics, her dissertation: “Making Home Again: Japanese American Resettlement in Post-WWII Los Angeles, 1945-1955” examines what it took for Japanese Americans to reestablish themselves following the wartime incarceration. In addition to her ongoing work at JANM, Kristen stays connected to the Japanese American community in Los Angeles through her involvement with the Little Tokyo Historical Society and Makoto Taiko.
Updated November 2019