Research

What happens when a writing system encounters another system's aesthetic values?


How do people learn to see and construct letterforms when they move between languages?


How do people reshape standardized writing systems to express identity?


How do cultural ideas about beauty, personality, and legibility migrate across scripts?

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_{This project investigates how aesthetic values learned through one writing system persist when writers adopt another. Beginning with observations of Japanese and Chinese immigrant handwriting in English, the research explores how handwriting instruction, cultural norms, and movements such as marui-ji shape the construction of Latin letterforms. Through archival research, handwriting analysis, and typographic experimentation, the project examines handwriting as a site where language, identity, education, and visual culture intersect.}