Victoria Lee

Assistant Professor, History, Ohio University

 

The research … helped me engage extensively with Japanese scholars of the history of science and of science and technology studies (STS), which continues to be immensely valuable to my work.

Dr. Lee was a Japan Foundation Fellow for 12 months in 2010-2011, based in Tokyo.

My dissertation research looked at Japanese engagement with microbes in science, industry, and environmental management in the twentieth century. It explored why fermentation expanded beyond small-scale traditional manufactures to take special prominence in food, resources, and medicine in Japan, addressing scientists’ and technicians’ role in defining the texture of everyday life and material culture as an aspect of political economy.

The research enabled me to conduct oral history interviews with fermentation scientists and to collect archival and library documents that were difficult to access outside of Japan. It helped me engage extensively with Japanese scholars of the history of science and of science and technology studies (STS), which continues to be immensely valuable to my work.

I attained a tenure-track position in the history of science and technology at Ohio University and am completing a book. Based on my doctoral research, I was awarded postdoctoral fellowships at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and the Institut d’études avancées de Paris, as well as the Zhu Kezhen Junior Award for a published journal article from the International Society for the History of East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine.