Welcome! I’m Dr. Teruko Vida Mitsuhara, a linguistic anthropologist, Afro-futurist,  public speaker, teacher, UX researcher, and performer. In my academic research, I specialize in alternative worldbuilding movements that live in opposition to stresses of modern life such as racism, capitalism, and environmental ruin. To assist communities in building their better future from “scratch,” I founded a research and consulting firm The Science of Worldbuilding.

I teach about the relations between language, culture, power, and social change. I have a deep methodological training in ethnographic methods, video ethnography, linguistic and narrative analysis, coding, and transcription.

I’m also a UX Research Manager for Express at Adobe’s Design Research and Strategy department having a lot of fun researching innovative offerings that are the future of digital creativity.

Science and Art

Studying the future is a playful endeavor. To keep myself open to possibilities and to help build hopeful futures I work to keep my mind, spirit, and body open to change. The best way to do that is to play and to imagine without reservation.

I returned to acting toward the end of graduate school after several years of developing an expertise in anthropology and linguistics. I needed a space where I could shed my doctoral self and play as an actor, fiction writer, improvisor and stand-up comedian.  I study at the Groundlings Theatre and School, and was awarded the competitive Groundlings SNL Scholarship (2021). To keep up with the fun things I do, check out this page.

If there are any artists out there in the Ivory Tower reading this, please remember to create and embrace your artist within while pursuing your studies. Play an instrument, write your play, do standup, dance and more! It’ll help you laugh, which helps you think better, and write your book chapters, articles, and that elusive dissertation, I promise.

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