Dr. Karatsu’s research addresses topics in the fields of Conversation Analysis, Discourse Analysis, and Sociolinguistics. In particular, she is interested in Narrative Study, Study of Conversational Storytelling, Presentation of Identities/ Selves, Grammar in Interaction, and Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language. She conducts research on Instruction and Understanding as well as research on Small Stories in Instructional Interaction. Her research is empirical and qualitative analyses of naturally occurring conversational interaction from multi modal perspective. Her goal is to be inter-disciplinary across Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, Sociology, and Social Psychology. She directed the Japanese Language Program in 2006-2025 and served as the Resident Director of Konan Year-in-Japan program in 2013-2014 and 2017-2018.