Professor Yuko Aoyama is an economic/industrial geographer with expertise in globalization, industrial organization, technological innovation, and cultural economy. Her research interest lies in developing geographic understandings of global capitalisms from institutional and comparative perspectives. Her work demonstrates how various industrial sectors and entrepreneurs sustain economic distinctiveness in spite of globalization, in the USA, Japan, Spain, and India. She has conducted research in a variety of industries, ranging from electronics, video games and logistics to autonomous vehicles, wind energy, and tourism.  Her recent work on India focused on cross-domain collaborations between for-profit and non-profit organizations that induce social innovation.  She is currently interested in advancing research on technological and institutional aspects of the mobility revolution, specifically, the emergence of autonomous and electric vehicles and the associated transformation on the global supplier networks.

Professor Aoyama received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.  She has been awarded an Abe Fellowship from the Social Science Research Council, Bellagio Academic Residency from the Rockefeller Foundation, as well as research grants from the National Science Foundation, National Geographic Society, and the Association of Asian Studies. 

Professor Aoyama served as the Associate Provost and Dean of Research and Graduate Studies (2017-23), for which she was responsible for managing the Office of Sponsored Programs and Research; providing oversight for graduate programs in Arts and Sciences and research centers; designing and launching workshops for faculty and graduate students; coordinating with Corporate and Foundation Relations (University Advancement) and Marketing and Communications to raise the profile of research on campus; providing strategic inputs to Research Board, Graduate Board and the provost management group; and serving as administrative representatives for faculty search committees.

Courses offered:

GEOG 016: Introduction to Economic Geography
GEOG 152: Geography of Globalization
GEOG 107: Miracles of Asia — Economic Growth in Global Contexts
GEOG 256: Global Economic Geographies
GEOG 257: Internet Geography
GEOG 314: Proposal Writing
GEOG 362: Seminar on Globalization
GEOG 365: Graduate Seminar in Economic Geography
GEOG 396.3: Digital Geography