Curriculum Vitae

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

  • Professor, UMBC Department of History, 2008-present.

  • Founding Director, UMBC Asian Studies Program, 2011-17.

  • Visiting Professor, Centro de Estudios de Asia y Africa, El Colegio de Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico, August 2010.                

  • Visiting Professor, Department of East Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania, Spring 2010.

  • Associate Professor, UMBC Department of History, 1993-2008.

  • Visiting Research Professor International Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken), Kyoto, Japan, 2003-04. 

  • Visiting Associate Professor, The Johns Hopkins University, Department of History (Fall 2002).                

  • Visiting Associate Professor, The Johns Hopkins University, Department of History (Spring 1997).

  • Visiting Scholar, Anhui University, Hefei, People's Republic of China, Department of History (May-July 1994).

  • Assistant Professor, UMBC, Department of History, 1989-1993.  

  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Reischauer Institute, Harvard University, 1988-89.

  • Foreign Guest Researcher (gaikokujin kenkyûin), Tokyo University Historiographical Institute, Foreign Guest Researcher, 1988-89.

  •  Lecturer, Princeton University, Department of History, 1987-88.        

EDUCATION

  • Ph.D.  Princeton University, East Asian Studies, History concentration; M.A. Princeton University, East Asian Studies. History concentration.

  • B.A. The Ohio State University, Japanese language and literature.

SELECTED AWARDS (OTHER THAN FOR BOOKS)

  • Honors College Faculty Teaching Fellow, University of Maryland Baltimore County, 2023-25, 2009-11.

  • Lipitz Professor of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, UMBC, 2022-23.

  • ASIANetwork’s Speakers Bureau, 2016-18, 2018-20. (Appointed for two terms. ASIANetworks is a consortium of 160 colleges and universities with Asian Studies programs.)

  • Presidential Research Professor, UMBC, 2013-16.

  • Selected as “Professor Not to Miss” by current and former UMBC students, Fall 2013.

  • Selected participant for NEH Summer Institute “India's Past and the Making of the Present,” New Delhi, India, June 30-July 27, 2013.

SELECTED FELLOWSHIPS AND RESEARCH SUPPORT

  • Member, Institute for Advanced Study, School of Historical Studies, Princeton, NJ, 2019-20.

  • Residential Faculty Fellow, Dresher Center for the Humanities, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Spring 2016-17.

  • Japan Studies Grant, Northeast Asia Council, Association for Asian Studies, 2008.

  • Fellowship in Korean Studies, sponsored by the Freeman Foundation and Korea Information Service, 2000.

  • National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Fellowship for College Teachers, 1997-98.

  •  Fulbright Scholar's Award (IIE), 1993-94.  

  • American Philosophical Society Grant, 1991-92.         

  • Visiting Research Fellow, Princeton University, Summer 1991.

  • Japan Foundation Professional Grant, 1990.  

PUBLICATIONS

Books

Selected Articles/Book Chapters

  • “Samurai Life.” Invited book chapter in Gary Leupp, ed., The Tokugawa World, pp. 30-59 (Routledge Press, 2021).

  • “Samurai, Masculinity and Violence in Early Modern Japan.” Invited chapter in Robert Anthony, ed., The Cambridge History of Violence, vol. 3 (AD 1500-AD 1800), 236-54 (Cambridge University Press, 2020).

  • “Performance, Display, and the Spectacular.” In Kurt Almquist and Yukiko Duke Bergman, eds., Japan’s Past and Present, 369-86. Stockholm: Bokförlaget Stolpe, 2020.

  • Mapping the ‘Arms and Legs of the Realm.’ In Kären Wigen, Fumiko Sugimoto, and Cary Karacas, ed., Cartographic Japan: A Reader, pp. 13-27. University of Chicago Press, 2015.

  • “Pa-forumansu to shite no sankin kōtai” (Alternate Attendance as Performance.” Lead article in Japanese National Museum of History’s magazine Rekihaku (November 20, 2013), pp. 2-5.

  • “Οι Σαμουράι στο Έντο και ο Πολιτισμός της Πρώιμης Σύγχρονης Ιαπωνίας” (The Samurai in Edo and the State in Early Modern Japan). Athens, Greece: Hellenic-Japanese Center, 2013.

  • “Daimyo Processions: Authority and Theater,” Japan Review 17 (2005), pp. 3-52.

  • “Edo chūki no bushi to shonin--Tani Tannai no ‘Nichiyo beien roku.”(A Mid-Tokugawa Period Samurai and Merchant. Tani Tannai and a ‘Daily Record of Salt and Rice.”  Adapted Japanese version of article in Harvard Journal of Asiatic Society), in Shuroku bunka to mibunsei (Collecting Culture and the Status System), edited by Wakita Haruko (Tokyo: Shibunkaku shuppan, 2005), pp. 1-22.

  • “Samurai and Merchant in Mid-Tokugawa Japan. Tani Tannai’s Record of Daily Necessities (1748-54).” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 60, 1 (June 2000), pp. 205-27.

  • “To the Shogun’s Capital and Back. Alternate Attendance and Tokugawa Japan,” Asie no. 5: Aller et Venir. Mythe et Histoire (Centre de Recherche sur l’Extreme-Orient de Paris-Sorbonne December 1997), pp. 99-110.

  • “To Edo and Back: Alternate Attendance and Japanese Culture in the Early Modern Period,” Journal of Japanese Studies 23, 1 (Winter 1997), pp. 25-67.

  • "Tour of Duty: The Kurume han Edo kinban Scroll"--a transcription, translation, and historical commentary on a mid-nineteenth century Japanese scroll, with paintings and accompanying brush-written text. Monumenta Nipponica 51, 3 (Autumn 1996), pp. 279-307. 

  • "Japanese Textbooks and the War in China," Kang-ri zhan zheng shi yanjiu (Studies in the History of the War of Resistance Against Japan), Beijing, People's Republic of China 3 (1995), pp. 169-177.

  • "Edo e no tabi. Tosa hanshi Mori-ke nikki nado ni miru sankin kôtai no sugata" ("The Road to Edo. The Alternate Attendance System as Seen Through the Diaries of the Mori Family of Tosa Domain), Kōtsūshi kenkyū (Studies in the History of Communications), vol. 34 (December 1994), pp. 52-67.

  • "Edo to Tosa. Toshū no Edo yashiki" (Edo and Tosa: Tosa Domain's Compounds in the City of Edo), Tosa shidan (Tosa Historical Journal), vol. 68 (1994), pp. 1-13.

  • "Caveat Viator: Advice to Travelers in the Edo Period," Monumenta Nipponica 44, 4 (Winter 1989), pp. 461-485. (Translation with historical introduction.)

SELECTED PRESENTATIONS

  • Presentation “Heian-Muromachi Japan: Rise of the Warrior” for NCTA (National Consortium for Teaching About Asia) Workshop for secondary teachers held at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, October 1, 2022.

  • Presentation on “Early Modern Japan” for NCTA (National Consortium for Teaching About Asia) Workshop for secondary teachers held at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, October 15, 2022.

  • "A Lord, a Pauper, and an Artist: Putting People Back into Samurai History." Humanities Forum lecture, Dresher Center, UMBC (December 1, 2021).

  •  "Japanese Peripheries and Cultural Centers: The Samurai Kakizaki Hakyō (1764-1826) and his Ainu Chieftain Paintings," Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ (March 1, 2021).

  • "Samurai and the World of Painting, East & West: The Life Experience of Odano Naotake (1750-80)," Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ (February 22, 2021).

  • “Writing a History of the Samurai—Issues and Challenges.” Colloquium presented to the School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, November 23, 2020.

  •  “The Making of a Japanese Martyr. Yoshida Shōin and His Memory Landscape.” Colloquium presented to the Department of East Asian Studies, Princeton University, November 4, 2020.

  • “Exhibiting the Samurai: Representation, Cultural Identity, and Public History.” Association for Asian Studies Conference, Denver, CO. Also organized Chaired the panel, “Public History and Japan’s Martial Heritage.” 2019.

  • “Revolutionary, Terrorist or ‘Spiritual Father’ of Modern Japan? Yoshida Shôin as Seen through His Memory Landscape.” Illinois Wesleyan University, March 8, 2018.

  • “Reconsidering Yoshida Shōin through His Memory Landscape.” Paper presented at European Association of Japanese Studies Conference (EAJS), Lisbon, Portugal, August 3, 2017. (Also served as organizer and Chair.)

  • Performance, Display, and the Spectacular: The ‘Great peace’ and Samurai Culture in Tokugawa Japan.” Paper presented at the seminar “The Making of the Samurai in Tokugawa Japan” hosted by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation, Engelsberg, Sweden, May 18, 2017.

  • “Writing the History of the Samurai: Issues and Challenges.” Invited Lecture presented at Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, March 6, 2017.

  • “Performance, Display, and the Spectacular: The ‘Great Peace’ and Samurai Culture in Tokugawa Japan.” Invited lecture presented at Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, March 7, 2017.

  •  “Performance, Display, and the Spectacular: The ‘Great Peace’ and Samurai Culture in Tokugawa Japan.” Invited lecture presented at the New College of Florida, Sarasota, FL, February 27, 2017. (Invitation through ASIANetwork’s Speaker’s Bureau)

  • “Kobayashi Masaki's Film Seppuku and the Samurai in Tokugawa Japan. Mini-lecture and discussion leader for public showing of film at New College of Florida, February 28, 2017.

  • NCTA (National Consortium for Teaching About Asia) Workshops for secondary teachers held at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, October 22 (The Rise of the Warrior in Japanese History) and November 12 (Early Modern Japan), 2016.

  • “The Edo Man and the Satsuma Sweet Potato. Early Modern Travel through a Japanese Prism.” Invited lecture for inaugural lecture series for the Center for Integrated Study of Japan, University of Pennsylvania, November 12, 2015.

  • “The Samurai in Japanese History.” Invited conference paper delivered at the 12th Annual International Conference on History & Archaeology: From Ancient to Modern, Athens Institute of Education and Research, 28-31 July 2014, Athens, Greece.

  • “Performance, Display, and the Spectacular: The ‘Great Peace’ and Samurai Culture in Tokugawa Japan.” Invited conference paper delivered at the Congreso Internacional de Asociación Latinoamericana de Estudios de Asia y África (ALADAA), National University of La Plata, La Plata, Argentina, August 14, 2013.

  • “The Arms and Legs of the Realm: Travel and Transport in Early Modern Japan.” Invited participant/presenter for conference “Highways and Road Systems: Comparative Perspectives,” Brown University, April 4-6, 2008.

  • Organizer, Chair and Discussant for a panel entitled “Samurai: History and Memory,” held at the European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS), Vienna, Austria, August 31-September 3, 2005.

SERVICE TO THE PROFESSION (SELECTED)

  • Athens Journal of History, Board Member (2014-16).

  • Organized International Forum on Asian History/Asian Studies, Athens Institute for Education and Research, June 28-30, 2015, Athens, Greece.

  •  Boren Scholarships (for Asia) Selection Committee, March 1-31, 2015.

  •  Advisor for Walters Art Museum, Hackerman House Reinstallation, Planning Committee, 2012-14.

  • Organization Committee, Athens Institute for Education and Research, 2014.

  •  Ph.D. Committee Outside Member for Anatoly Anshin, University of New South Wales, 2014.

  •  Honors Thesis Committee member for Midshipman Michael Rogers, United States Naval Academy, 2005.

  •  Offered a Ph.D. general examination field in Japanese history to Grant Alger, a student from Johns Hopkins University (1996-97).

  • National Screening Committee, Institute of International Education (IIE) for Fulbright-Hays Program, 1997-2000.

  •  Manuscript reader and referee for the following publishers and journals: Journal of Social History, Athens Journal of History, Early Modern Japan, Japan Forum, Japan Review, Journal of Asian Studies, Monumenta Nipponica, Journal of Japanese Studies, Columbia University Press, Stanford University Press, Cornell University Press, University of California Press, Hackett Publishers.