Participant Info

First Name
Paula R.
Last Name
Curtis
Country
United States
State
CA California
Affiliation
University of California, Los Angeles
Website URL
http://prcurtis.com
Keywords
medieval Japan, premodern Japan, forgery, documentary culture, economy, artisans, commerce, metal casters
Availability
Media Contact
Additional Contact Information
PhD
PhD

Personal Info

Photo
About Me

I am a historian of premodern Japan (PhD University of Michigan, 2019) and currently a Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer in History at University of California, Los Angeles with the Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies. My research focuses on documentary forgery production and socioeconomic networks during Japan’s late medieval period, particularly the sixteenth century. I am also interested in digital humanities and the use of digital tools to analyze premodern historical sources. I manage and collaborate in several online projects, including the Digital Humanities Japan initiative; data visualizations on the East Asian Studies academic job market; an online database for resources related to East Asia; the blog What can I do with a B.A. in Japanese Studies; and the digital archive Carving Community: The Landis-Hiroi Collection.

Recent Publications

Articles and Essays

“Surveying Premodern Historians of Japan: Past, Present, and Future Directions of the Field.” #AsiaNow. Jun 21, 2021.

“Ramseyer and the Right-Wing Ecosystem Suffocating Japan.” Tokyo Review. May 30, 2021.

《巻頭言》「デジタル・シフトとデジタル日本研究の未来」 (The ‘Digital Shift’ and the Future of Digital Japanese Studies), 人文情報学月報 / Digital Humanities Monthly 115-1 (2021). [English version]

“An Entrepreneurial Aristocrat: Matsugi Hisanao and the Forging of Imperial Service in Late Medieval Japan.” Monumenta Nipponica 75, no. 2 (2020): 241-279.

Translations

Itō Keisuke. “Why Were There No Severe Famines in Fourteenth-Century Japan? Social Change, Resilience, and Climatic Cooling.” Monumenta Nipponica 73, No. 2 (2019): 187-212. [Link]

Takagi Kiyoko. “Emperor Kōken,” “Emperor Shōtoku,” “Emperor Meishō,” “Emperor Go-Sakuramachi.” In Hachinin no jotei (The Eight Female Emperors of Japan: A Brief Introduction to their Lives and Legacies). Tokyo: Fuzambō International, 2005. Publication in English by Fuzambō International.

Reviews

William Wayne Farris. A Bowl for a Coin: A Commodity History of Japanese Tea. H-net Reviews (Feb 2021).

“Bodies and Structures.” Reviews in Digital Humanities 1, no. 10 (Oct 2020).

Media Coverage
Country Focus
Japan
Expertise by Geography
Asia, East Asia, Japan
Expertise by Chronology
Medieval, Pre-17th century
Expertise by Topic
Economic History, Law, Politics