Faculty
Faculty
The Japanese studies faculty of Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State University collaborate in the Triangle Center for Japanese Studies. The Center boasts a team of twenty-six core research faculty members; fourteen at Duke, nine at UNC, and three at NCSU . These are twelve language-teaching faculty, and a number of other faculty members with research interests in Japan.
Japanese studies faculty from each university have enjoyed close relations for many years. Duke and UNC, in particular, have established university-wide relationships that facilitate exchange at both the student and faculty level. In 2008-9, faculty members from each campus developed the Triangle Japan Forum, a monthly seminar uniting scholars and students and featuring presentations of work in progress, celebrations of finished work and lectures by invited scholars.
At UNC and Duke, Japanese studies faculty work with Ph.D. students in Anthropology, Art History, History and Comparative Literature. NCSU offers an M.A. in History that attracts Japan specialists; Duke’s Asia / Pacific Studies Institute offers an M.A. in East Asian Studies, and UNC’s Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Department has recently launched a graduate program. NCSU and UNC faculty also mentor graduate students and sit on Ph.D. committees at Duke.
Through enhanced collaboration efforts, our collective faculty plays an important role in supporting and promoting Japanese studies throughout the Southeast, while raising its collective profile and attracting top-notch graduate students.
Anthropology
Anne Allison
Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Duke University
Research Interests: Political economy; everyday life; imagination in the context of late capitalist, post-industrial Japan
Norris Johnson
Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: Japanese architecture, art, and aesthetics; religions and nature
Chris Nelson
Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: History and memory; everyday life; ethnography; critical theory; storytelling, ritual and performance; Japan and Okinawa
Art & Art History
Gennifer Weisenfeld
Professor in the Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies, Duke University
Research Interests: Modern and contemporary Japanese art history, design, and visual culture
Asian Studies
Jan Bardsley
Professor Emerita, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: Japanese women’s studies, including in fiction, film, theater, women’s magazines, feminist debate, and social institutions
Leo Ching
Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Duke University
Research Interests: Colonial discourse studies; postcolonial theory; Japanese mass culture; globalization and regionalism
Mark Driscoll
Professor of Asian Studies and Middle Eastern Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: Japanese modernity, cultural studies
Fumi Iwashita
Teaching Assistant Professor of Asian Studies and Middle Eastern Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: Second langauge acquisition and language pedagogy
Yuko Kato
Teaching Associate Professor of Asian Studies and Middle Eastern Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: Pragmatics; changing social values; role of music in society; teaching culture through film and TV drama
Nayoung Aimee Kwon
Associate Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Duke University
Research Interests: Comparative colonialism; literary criticism and translation studies; film and media studies; postcolonial history and theory; gender and sexuality studies, focusing on global Asia, inter-Asian and transpacific (Asia/Americas) historic and cultural encounters
Geological Sciences
Jonathan Lees
Professor of Geological Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: Seismology and volcanology, Japan.
Geography
Elizabeth Havice
Professor and Associate Chair of Geography, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: Agrarian studies; coastal and marine governance; global value chain analysis; resource geography
History
David Ambaras
Professor of History, North Carolina State University
Research interests: Modern Japan in its global contexts; imperialism; social history; borders and mobilities; digital humanities
Cemil Aydin
Professor of History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research interests: Asian history in the context of global and transnational history
W. Miles Fletcher
Professor Emeritus of History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: Modern Japanese history (1868-present); political economy of Japan; Japanese business community
Simon Partner
Professor of History, Duke University
Research Interests: Late 19th and 20th-century Japanese history; growth of consumer markets; technology and social change; Japanese rural society
Morgan Pitelka
Professor and Chair of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: History of late medieval and early modern Japan, with an emphasis on the samurai, tea culture, ceramics, cities, and material culture
Kristina Troost
Japanese Librarian Emerita, Duke University
Research Interests: Medieval Japanese history; Japanese collections
Japanese Language
Yuki Aratake
Teaching Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: Innovative language pedagogy; use of Japanese in “real world” situations
Yunchuan Chen
Assistant Professor of the Practice of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Duke University
Research Interests: Japanese language pedagogy; linguistics
Naoko Kurokawa
Senior Lecturer of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Duke University
Research Interests: Japanese linguistics; foreign language pedagogy
John Mertz
Associate Professor of Foreign Languages and Literatures, North Carolina State University
Research Interests: Japanese language pedagogy
Azusa Saito
Lecturing Fellow of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Duke University
Research Interests: Japanese language pedagogy; curriculum development
Katsu Sawamura
Teaching Assistant Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: Games and sports in Japanese language pedagogy
Eika Tai
Professor of Foreign Languages and Literatures, North Carolina State University
Research Interests: Japanese imperialism and comfort women
Linguistics
Jennifer Smith
Associate Professor of Linguistics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: Phonology; phonetics; Japanese linguistics
Literature
Inger Brodey
Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: Literature in late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century Europe and Meiji Japan; comparative film studies
Gary Matthews
Teaching Associate Professor of Foreign Languages and Literatures
Research Interests: English-language Noh-style performance; social role of performing arts
Music
Marc Callahan
Assistant Professor of Music, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: Opera performance; Noh theatre; Japanese performance culture; Asian influences on Western music and performance
Jonathan Kramer
Teaching Professor of Music, North Carolina State University
Hsiao-mei Ku
Professor of the Practice of Music, Duke University
Research Interests: Classical music performance
Emily Yun Wang
Assistant Professor of Music, Duke University
Research Interests: Sound studies; Asian American/Canadian and diaspora studies; intersectional queer and feminist thought
Political Science
Jessica Liao
Asst Professor in the School of Public and International Affairs, North Carolina State University
Research Interests: International relations; East Asian politics
Margaret McKean
Professor Emerita of Political Science, Duke University
Research Interests: Political institutions, particularly electoral arrangements and property rights; theories of cooperation to the management of common-pool goods like environmental resources
James White
Professor Emeritus, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: Japanese politics; demographics; protest; Japanese political history
Religion/Religious Studies
Barbara Ambros
Professor and Department Chair of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Research Interests: Japanese religions; gender studies; human-animal relationships; place and space; pilgrimage
Richard Jaffe
Professor of Religious Studies, Duke University
Research Interests: Japanese Buddhism in the modern era
Levi McLaughlin
Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies, North Carolina State University
Research Interests: Religion in modern and contemporary Japan; Soka Gakkai and lay Buddhism; grassroots experiences of religion; responses to natural disasters; aesthetics and performance within religious organizations
Sociology
Bai Gao
Professor of Sociology, Duke University
Research Interests: Asian social geography; implications of financial policy
