Asa Ito is Director of the Future of Humanity Research Center at the Tokyo Institute of Technology’s Institute of Innovative Research, and Visiting Scholar at MIT (2019), specializing in aesthetics and contemporary art. After initially intending to become a biologist, she turned her academic focus to the arts while in her third year at university. She obtained her PhD in Literature in 2010, having studied aesthetics, fine arts, and culture at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology. As author, Dr. Ito’s major works include Me no mienai hito wa sekai wo domiteiru no ka (How Do People Without Sight See the World?, Kobunsha), Domoru karada (The Stuttering Body, Igaku-Shoin), Kioku suru karada (The Remembering Body, Shunjusha), and Te no Rinri（Ethics of hands, Kodan-sha）. Her work was recognized with the 42ndSuntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities in 2020.