Biography
Juliana's fascination with Asia began at age 10 while watching Japanese television shows. At 14, she fulfilled her dream of studying Japanese at the Brazil-Japan Cultural Institute in Rio de Janeiro. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Literature and Linguistics (Portuguese-Japanese) from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), during which she received a MEXT Scholarship from the Japanese Government to study at Osaka University.
After graduating, she joined the JET Programme, serving as a Coordinator for International Relations, translator, and interpreter for the Nagahama City Hall in Shiga Prefecture. She later worked for the Aichi Prefectural Board of Education, supervising teachers in schools with Latin American students.
After seven years in Japan, she relocated to India in 2013, where she taught Portuguese and Japanese at Bangalore University and worked as interpreter for several Japanese companies.
Returning to Brazil in 2019, she transitioned into academia. In 2023, she earned her Master’s degree in Translation Studies from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), writing her thesis on Indian literature and feminism (Indian Female Voices: An Annotated Translation of Selected Poems by Kamala Das and Eunice de Souza). That same year, she pursued an MA in Japanese Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she served as a Teaching Assistant in Japanese. She is currently a Ph.D. student in East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where her research focuses on the written records left by Japanese courtesans (yūjo).
In 2024, she founded Estudos Asiáticos, a platform dedicated to promoting Asian literature and history. Through this project, she aims to build a bridge among Latin American researchers by offering and lectures on Japanese paleography and language. She is the translator behind the first Portuguese translation of Chūshingura and the Portuguese translation of Aoyama Shundo’s autobiography (Even If the Path Is Long), scheduled for release in the second half of 2026 by Editora Bella.
In her free time, she enjoys watching Asian TV shows, spending time with her pets (two cats and a dog), gardening, and drinking coffee.
Research Interests
Asian women's literature (especially East and South Asian) - Japanese paleography (Kuzushiji, Sorobun, Kanbun)- Book history- Writing systems, Edo history and literayure- The Pleasure Quarters and its courtesans (yūjo)- Intercultural interaction between Japanese women and foreigners.