Gene T. Kim, a 2026 graduate of Harvard’s Ph.D. program in History and East Asian Languages (HEAL), has been named the second recipient of the United States-Japan Foundation’s Richard J. Samuels Dissertation Award in Japanese Studies. The award recognizes his dissertation, Upwellings of Oceanic Decolonization: Coastal Governance in Japan and Korea, 1894–1958, which explores the intertwined histories of Japan and Korea through maritime governance, fisheries, and competing claims over ocean resources, illuminating their significance to Japanese imperial expansion and the emergence of postcolonial sovereignty in Northeast Asia.

Dr. Kim’s doctoral research was supported by the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies. He is currently an Academy Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, where he continues his research on the environmental and economic history of modern Japan and Korea.

The full announcement can be found here.