Kei (pronounced kay-ee) is a Ph.D. student in Geography from Japan, interested in how the ocean, its more-than-human inhabitants, and human societies interact. Before joining UIUC in 2023, he spent two years as a Ph.D. student at the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University, where his interests in settler colonialism and racial capitalism grew. He was born and raised in Nagoya, Japan, and moved to Tokyo for college when he was 17. During his undergraduate studies, he spent a year at Guilford College (North Carolina, USA), marking his first experience spending a whole academic year outside his home country. It was there that he encountered human geography, in a course on urban environmental history where the professor assigned Concrete and Clay by Matthew Gandy.

広くは、海、そこに住む人間以外の様々な存在、そして人間社会の間にある相互作用について関心を抱いています。2023年にイリノイ大学に入学するまでは、2年間、米国アリゾナ州立大学地理科学・都市計画学部博士課程に2年間在籍し、入植者植民地研究や人種資本主義などについて学んでいました。名古屋で生まれ育ち、大学進学のために17歳で上京しました。大学時代に1年間交換留学したギルフォード大学（米国ノースカロライナ州）で都市環境史の授業を履修した際に Concrete and Clay という本を読み、初めて人文地理学に出会いました。