Xiaolu Ma (Ph.D. 2017, Comparative Literature) wins Honorable Mention for 2025 AILC-ICLA Balakian Prize
Xiaolu Ma (Harvard Ph.D. '17, Comparative Literature) has received an Honorable Mention in the 2025 competition for the International Comparative Literature Association's Anna Balakian Prize for her book Transpatial Modernity: Chinese Cultural Encounters with Russia via Japan (1880–1930), published in 2024 through the Harvard University Asia Center Publications Program.
Read MoreDavid C. Atherton appointed Thorley D. Briggs 1953 Associate Professor of the Humanities
David C. Atherton has been appointed Thorley D. Briggs 1953 Associate Professor of the Humanities. Professor Atherton is a scholar of literature, focusing primarily on Japan’s early modern period (also known as the Edo or Tokugawa period, ca. 1600-1867). He is concerned with understanding how the intrinsic, literary dynamics of early modern texts interacted with and shaped the social, cultural, and political worlds beyond the page.
Read MoreIan J. Miller appointed Reischauer Institute Professor of Environmental History
Ian J. Miller, is the Reischauer Institute Professor of Environmental History as well as an Affiliate Professor in the Department of the History of Science and the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations. Since July 2020, he has also served as Faculty Dean of Cabot House.
Read MoreDina Hassan (Ph.D. Candidate, History) receives 2025 Akiyama Award
Dina Hasan (Ph.D. Candidate, History) was recently named a recipient of the 2025 Akiyama Award by the Weatherhead Center Program on U.S.-Japan Relations. This award, also supported by the Akiyama Aiseikan, Akiyama Life Science Foundation, and the Reischauer Institute, is a summer research grant annually presented to a doctoral student who conducts social science research on contemporary Japan.
Read MoreAva Bush (RSEA '25) receives 2025 Fletcher Award
At the commencement reception of the Regional Studies East Asia Program, Ava Bush (RSEA '25) received a 2025 Joseph Fletcher Memorial Thesis Award for her thesis "Disentangling the Taizōkai Mandala: A Gendered Matrix of Enlightenment and Ritual Union," advised by Prof. Yukio Lippit, Department of History of Art and Architecture.
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