News
Talk by Dr Chui-Joe Tham, “The Flourishing and Decline of the Central Plains”
"'The Flourishing and Decline of the Central Plains': Seventeenth-Century Tokugawa Depictions of ‘China’ in Time and Space During the Ming-Qing Transition," JF-GJS Fellow Talk by Dr Chui-Joe Tham at the University of Tokyo on 16 April 2026 (11:00am-12:30pm), moderated by Dr Joel Littler. Click here for the registration link.
Dr Natalia Doan publishes new book, "Civil War Samurai," 2026
The trailer for this book is available on YouTube at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn7h_4k3mik. The book is also available digitally through JSTOR and in print through Leiden University Press.
Panel on Reopening the “Opening of Japan” at the AAS Conference 2026
Dr Yu Sakai, Dr Joel Littler, and Dr Chinami Oka presented their papers in the panel “Reopening the ‘Opening of Japan’: Transnational Approaches to Japan and the Wider World” at the Association for Asian Studies 2026 Annual Conference, held in Vancouver, Canada. Each paper challenged conventional understandings of the ‘opening’ tied to a West-centric discourse of civilisation and discussed the potential of new transnational approaches in the study of modern history.
Lecture by Prof. Sho Konishi
Prof. Sho Konishi delivers lecture, "The History of Not: Symbiotic Modern in Japan after World War Zero," at the University of Valencia.
Given on 13th March, 2026, as part of the Tradiasia (Transculturality and Diversity in East Asia)
Dr Alice Baldock contributes an essay for butoh book
Meiji Civil War Losers: Transnational Connectivity Arising from Defeat
Dr Natalia Doan discusses “Samurai at the White House” on C-SPAN
Dr Natalia Doan (MSc DPhil Oxf) recently appeared on C-SPAN discussing her research on the transnational influence of samurai, in a lecture entitled “Samurai at the White House: Harriet Lane and the 1860 Japanese Embassy” and given at LancasterHistory in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Natalia Doan discusses her research on Japanese television
Joel Littler gives guest lecture at Mahidol University, MUIC titled "What's the Point?" Nihilist Democracy in Late-Meiji Japan
Toma-Jin Morikawa-Fouquet wins the 2023 Ivan Morris Prize for his MSc dissertation