Triangle Center for Japanese Studies

Anthropology

 

Anne Allison, Robert O. Keohane Professor of  Cultural Anthropology, Duke University
Research Interests: Contemporary and urban Japan, mass and children’s culture, sexuality, globalization, capitalism
*Affiliated with Women’s Studies

 

        Norris Johnson, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
          Research Interests: Japan; shrine and temple architecture; gardens; premodern history

 

Chris Nelson, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillResearch Interests: History and memory; everyday life; ethnography; critical theory; storytelling, ritual and performance; Japan and Okinawa

 

Art & Art History

 

Gennifer Weisenfeld, Associate Professor of Art. Art History, & Visual Studies, Duke University
Research Interests: Nineteenth- and twentieth-century Japanese art history; the impact of Japan’s modern sociopolitical transformations on artistic production and practice; Japanese modernism and commercial design

 

Asian Studies

 

Jan Bardsley, Associate Professor of Japanese Humanities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: Japanese feminism; Japanese women’s magazines and popular culture; encounters between women in the US and Japan; and icons of the feminine: royal women, geisha, and pageant winners

 

Leo Ching, Associate Professor of Japanese Literature, Duke University
Research Interests: Modern Japanese literature, theories of imperialism, colonial/postcolonial theories, globalization and cultural formation, popular culture, transnationalism in Asia/America

 

Mark Driscoll, Associate Professor of Asian Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: Japanese media and cultural studies; colonialism and postcolonialism in East Asia

Nayoung Aimee Kwon, Assistant Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Duke University
Research Interests: Korean and Japanese literature, history, and film; theories of empire and nation; translation studies; colonial/postcolonial discourses; Asian-Pacific trans-cultural movements; nexus of Asian and Asian-American studies; global visual cultures

 

Morgan Pitelka, Associate Professor of Asian Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: history of medieval and early modern Japan, material culture studies
*Affiliated with History

 

 

History

     

David Ambaras, Associate Professor of History, North Carolina State University
Research interests: Social problems and urban social history in imperial Japan

 

 

 

Cemil Aydin, Associate Professor of History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: Modern Middle Eastern History and Modern Asian history, with an emphasis on the international and intellectual histories of the Ottoman and Japanese Empires.

 

 

W. Miles Fletcher, Professor of History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: Modern Japanese history, 1868 to the present; the dynamics of Japan’s industrialization and the relationship between the state and the private sector

 

 

Simon Partner, Associate Professor of History, Director of the Asian/Pacific Studies Institute, Duke University
Research Interests: Twentieth-century Japanese history focusing on the growth of consumer markets, technology and social change, and Japanese rural society

 

 

Kristina Troost, Head of International Area Studies, Librarian for Japan, Duke University
Research Interests: Medieval Japanese history, social and economic history of Japan (premodern and modern), bibliography and research methods in Japanese studies

 

Japanese Language

 

Hitomi Endo, Associate Professor of the Practice of Japanese, Duke University
Research Interests: Language pedagogy, second language acquisition, Japanese linguistics, and oral proficiency testing

 

 

John Mertz, Associate Professor of Japanese, North Carolina State University
Research Interests: 19th-century Japanese literature and issues of social and literary change

 

 

Eika Tai, Professor of Japanese, North Carolina State University
Research Interests: National Identity, multiculturalism, human rights, and colonial education

 

 

Linguistics

 

Jennifer Smith, Associate Professor of Linguistics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: Japanese linguistics; phonological theory; structure and intonation in the Fukuoka dialect

 

Literature

 

Inger Brodey, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: the history of the novel in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Europe and Meiji Japan
*Affiliated with Asian Studies

Political Science

 

Margaret McKean, Associate Professor of Political Science and Environmental Policy, Duke University
Research Interests: Japanese politics, particularly institutions, elections, and decision-making; environmental and resource politics, in Japan and elsewhere
*Affiliated with the Nicholas School of Environment and Earth Sciences

 

 

James White, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: Comparative politics and collective behavior in East Asia; Japanese politics

 

Psychology

 

Reiko Mazuka, Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University
Research Interests: Increasing understanding of human brain development through investigation of language acquisition, specifically in relation to the phonological development of Japanese

Religion

 

Barbara Ambros, Associate Professor of Religion, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: East Asian Buddhism; Shinto; pilgrimage and sacred space in Japan; ethnicity and religion in Asian diaspora communities in Japan; human-animal relationships; East Asian religions and the environment

 

        Richard Jaffe, Creed C. Black Associate Professor of Religion (Buddhist Studies), Duke University
          Research Interests: Japanese Buddhism during the early modern and modern periods, Asian Buddhist modernism, pan-Asianism, nationalism during the late nineteenth and                 early twentieth centuries

 

Hwansoo Kim, Assistant Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and Religion, Duke University
Research Interests: :Korean Buddhism in the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, in the context of colonialism, imperialism, and identity
*Affiliated with Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

 

Sociology

 

Bai Gao, Professor of Sociology, Duke University
Research Interests: Economic sociology, organizational analysis, comparative historical sociology, political economy, Japanese society, Chinese society, East Asian capitalism