Host Institutions, 2013 OAH/JAAS Residencies

Konan University: Short-term Lecture Residency

Rumi YASUTAKE, PhD, Professor
Affiliation: Konan University (Kobe, Japan)
Postal Address: Faculty of Letters, Konan University
8-9-1 Okamoto, Higashinada-ku, Kobe 658-8501, Japan
Phone: +81-78-431-4341
Fax: +81-435-2528
E-Mail:

Hoping for a specialist in U.S. Women's History, preferably with an interest in imperial/transnational/international movements, including Pacific/Asia historical materials. For two weeks: June 1 through June 14, 2013.

Konan University is a private university established in 1951, at the time of post-WWI educational renovation. It grew out of Konan Junior and Senior High Schools founded in 1919 and 1923 respectively. Its founder Hirao Hachisaburo was a noted industrialist and statesman of the Meiji and Taisho periods, who contributed to the modernization of Japanese educational systems. He built Konan schools to realize his educational principles, emphasizing each student's character building, physical fitness, and individuality. Today, Konan University consists of eight faculties-Letters, Law, Economics, Business Administration, Management, Engineering, and Frontier Science; four graduate schools-Humanities, Natural Science, Social Science, Frontier Science; and two professional schools-Law and Accounting. There are approximately 9,800 students enrolled, and the Faculty of Letters accommodates about 2,000 students and 50 faculty members.

Kobe, the capital city of Hyogo prefecture, has developed as an international port city. It is one of the oldest ports opened for trade with the West in the mid-nineteenth century. Located on Japan's western region with close proximity to other Asian countries, Kobe prospered through trades both with Western and Eastern nations. It also functioned as the major emigration port for Japanese from the surrounding area who emigrated to Hawaii, the U.S. mainland, and Brazil. Today, Kobe remains cosmopolitan, sparkled with modern western architecture, along with Chinatown and Japan's first Islamic mosque. This international flavor of Kobe reflects in the campus life at Konan University, an institution with various exchange programs, welcoming overseas students as well as sending Konan students abroad.

Professor Rumi Yasutake received her PhD in U.S. History from University of California, Los Angeles. Her publications include, Transnational Women's Activism: the United States, Japan, and Japanese Immigrant Communities in California, 1859-1920. She is also a coordinator/co-translator of Through Women's Eyes: An American History with Documents, authored by Ellen C. DuBois and Lynn Dumenil.

Saitama University: Short-term Lecture Residency

Ichiro MIYATA, Ph. D., Associate Professor
Affiliation: Saitama University (Saitama, Japan)
Postal Address: Faculty of Liberal Arts, Saitama University
255 Shimo-Okubo, Sakura-ku, Saitama, 338-8570 Japan
Phone: +81-48-858-3042
Fax: +81-48-858-3685
E-Mail:

Hoping for a specialist in Urban and Suburban History (preferably with an emphasis in one or more of the following areas: popular culture, public space, environment, gender, and race and ethnicity). For two weeks: June 1 through June 14, 2013.

Saitama University is a suburban school located in booming Saitama City within the Tokyo Metropolitan area. Created out of the postwar merger of a former higher school and two teacher's colleges, the institution recently celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2009. Established as a small university comprised of only the two schools of education and of humanities and sciences, Saitama University soon benefited from the rapid growth of the Tokyo Metropolitan area to become a mid-sized institution of higher learning with five undergraduate schools (Liberal Arts, Education, Economics, Science, and Engineering) and four graduate schools (Cultural Science, Education, Economic Science, and Science & Engineering). The university currently enrolls about 7,400 undergraduate and graduate students, and employs approximately 460 faculty members.

Saitama University's leafy Okubo campus is located in an ideal place to observe the impact of suburbanization and globalization upon the traditional landscape of Saitama Prefecture. The train station located closest to campus, Minami Yono on the rapid transit Saikyo Line, enables one to go to Shinjuku and Shibuya, the hip downtown area of Tokyo featured in Sofia Coppola's film Lost in Translation, in roughly half an hour. Or one can stick closer to home to enjoy the campus' location in Sakura [Cherry Blossom] Ward, a quiet residential suburb for Tokyo commuters, and perhaps make a short trip to visit the upscale Shintoshin (New Central City) shopping malls, classic izakaya saloons, traditional restaurants, or simply stop in at a nearby Starbucks or McDonald's.

Professor Ichiro Miyata obtained his PhD in U.S. History in 2010 from the University of Georgia. He began teaching at his undergraduate alma mater Saitama University in 2007. While at UGA, Professor Miyata studied Southern, urban, and environmental history. He currently specializes in urban/suburban history, particularly questions related to public space, environment and culture. He is a recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship and a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship. Among his co-hosting colleagues at Saitama University are several US-trained scholars, including Professor Roger H. Brown, a University of Southern California PhD and an expert in Modern Japanese History and the History of US-Japan Relations.