Department Faculty

“I am a social and cultural historian of Japan, whose interests range from the fifteenth through the early twentieth centuries. I am also a specialist in the history of the Ryukyu Kingdom. My early research focused on the intellectual history of the Ryukyu Kingdom. Later, my interests moved to questions of the construction of identities in Japan's Okinawa Prefecture during the early twentieth century. Most recently, I have been working on the social history of earthquakes and disasters in Japan, especially the 1855 Ansei Edo Earthquake. My current book project, tentatively entitled Shaking Up Japan examines the 1855 Ansei Edo Earthquake and its social, cultural, and political ramifications for modern Japan. I maintain a Web site which includes a set of innovative Web-based textbooks.”