- This event now concluded.
- Speaker: Carol GLUCK (George Sansom Professor of History, Columbia University)
- Moderator: Tomoko KUBOTA (Independent Journalist)
- Date: Thursday, November 7, 2019, 6:30–8:30 pm, with a reception included
- Venue: Iwasaki Koyata Memorial Hall, International House of Japan
- Language: English / Japanese (with simultaneous interpretation)
- In cooperation with Toyo Eiwa Jogakuin*
- Admission: 3,000 yen each for members and their spouses (reservations required)
* Members can be accompanied by a spouse
This Special Lecture Series invites world-renowned individuals as guest speakers. In November, we will have Dr. Gluck, a leading Japanologist who has closely examined the path of Japan from the late nineteenth century to the present and made a great contribution to the understanding of its history over the years.
She will talk about modernity in Japan in a global context. In particular, by looking at the questions about modern Japanese history (e.g. the modernization question, the imperialism question, and the war memory question) that people outside the field often ask, as well as at the commonalities and connections Japan shares with other modern societies, she will discuss ideas about the “modern” based on empirical evidence different from the European experiences underlying earlier theories of modernity.
(George Sansom Professor of History, Columbia University)
Dr. Gluck specializes in modern Japan, international relations, World War II, and history-writing and public memory in Asia and the West. She received her B.A. from Wellesley College (1962) and her Ph.D. from Columbia University (1977). She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as of the American Philosophical Society, and former President of the Association for Asian Studies, and currently serves as co-chair of the Trustees Emeriti of the Asia Society and a member of the Board of Directors of the Japan Society. She is a founding member and now chair of Columbia’s Committee on Global Thought. Her publications include Japan’s Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji Period (Princeton University Press, 1985), Rekishi de kangaeru [Thinking with History] (Iwanami Shoten, 2007), and Past Obsessions: World War Two in History and Memory (Columbia University Press, forthcoming).
(Independent Journalist)
Ms. Kubota joined Tokyo Broadcasting (TBS) in 2000 where she became an announcer and worked on various programs, including Dobutsu kisotengai! [Amazing Animals!], Tetsuya Chikushi News 23, and Hodo Tokushu [Special News]. From 2013, she held appointments across the news bureau and served as a correspondent with the New York Bureau, as well as a political reporter at TBS. In 2017 she became a freelancer and in 2019 she obtained an MA in oral history from Columbia University. She is currently in a doctoral program at the University of Tokyo where she further pursues her research on oral history.