Fellows

Current Fellows – 2022

For archive of past fellows, please scroll down.

Benjamin Whaley

Japanese Studies Fellowship
Current position: Associate Professor, University of Calgary
Affiliation in Japan: Kanagawa University
Project title: Sketching Semitism: Jewish Identity in Postwar Manga




2020s

Show 2021 Recipients

Melek Ortabsai

Japanese Studies Fellowship
Position at time of fellowship: Associate Professor, Simon Fraser University
Affiliation in Japan: Kanagawa University
Project title: A World of Friends: The Transnational Story of Modern Japanese Children’s Literature, 1870-1930

Tsuyoshi Ono

Japanese Studies Fellowship
Position at time of fellowship: Professor, University of Alberta
Affiliation in Japan: National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics
Project title: The Grammar and Use of “Disfluent” Utterances in Japanese

Show 2020 Recipients

Valerie Harvey

Japanese Studies Fellowship
Position at time of fellowship: Research Assistant, Teluq-Université
Affiliation in Japan: Konan University
Project title: Mothers’ changing image and fathers’ use of family public policies

Stephen Lofts

Japanese Studies Fellowship
Position at time of fellowship: Full Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, King’s University College at Western University
Affiliation in Japan: Kyoto University
Project title: Ernst Cassirer and the Kyoto School: The Construction of an Open Cosmopolitanism for a Global World

2010s

Show 2019 Recipients

Daniel Adler

Ishibashi Foundation/ The Japan Foundation Fellowship for Research on Japanese Art
Position at time of fellowship:
Associate Professor, Department of Visual Art & Art History, York University
Affiliation in Japan: Sophia University and the National Museum of Modern Art
Project title: Tainted Goods: Assemblage Sculpture in Japan

Jesse Cumming

Ishibashi Foundation/ The Japan Foundation Fellowship for Research on Japanese Art
Position at time of fellowship:
Independent Curator and Writer
Affiliation in Japan: Fukuoka City Public Library Film Archive, National Film Archive of Japan, VIDEOART CENTER
Project title: Back and Forth: Experimental Media Art Between Japan and North America 1960-1975

Carin Holroyd

Japanese Studies Fellowship
Position at time of fellowship:
Associate Professor, Department of Political Studies, University of Saskatchewan
Affiliation in Japan: N/A (short-term)
Project title: Japan 5.0: In Pursuit of a Smart Social Strategy

Rudiger Meyer

Japanese Studies Fellowship
Position at time of fellowship:
Director of Graduate Studies, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD University)
Affiliation in Japan: N/A (short-term)
Project title: Japanese Models for Flexible Dwelling Design in Canada

David Murakami Wood

Japanese Studies Fellowship
Position at time of fellowship:
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Queen’s University
Affiliation in Japan: N/A (short-term)
Project title: Securing the Olympics: Tokyo 2020

Nathan Renner

Japanese Studies Fellowship
Position at time of fellowship:
PhD Candidate, Faculty of Music, University of Toronto
Affiliation in Japan: Hokkaido University
Project title: Ainu Music, Indigeneity and Environmentalism in Multicultural Japan

Mark Rowe

Japanese Studies Fellowship
Position at time of fellowship:
Associate Professor, Religious Studies Department, McMaster University
Affiliation in Japan: Bukkyo University
Project title: Female Buddhist Priests in Contemporary Japan

Show 2018 Recipients

Ekaterina Komova

Position at time of fellowship: PhD Candidate, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Columbia University 
Affiliation in Japan: Waseda University
Project title: Affect and Emotional Communities in Genji monogatari and its Reception

Joshua Trichilo

Position at time of fellowship: PhD Candidate, Department of Humanities, York University
Affiliation in Japan: Waseda University
Project title: Vibrant Assemblages in Japan: An Intellectual History of “Posthuman” Ecological Thought and its Politics Since the Taishō Era

Show 2017 Recipients

Vincent Wing-Chung Chan

Position at time of fellowship: PhD Candidate, Department of History, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Affiliation in Japan: University of Tokyo Historiographical Institute
Project title: Tracking the Words in the Wind: Rumors and the Information Network in Warring-States Japan

Claude Yves Charron

Position at time of fellowship:Professor, The Montreal Institute of International Studies, L’Université du Québec à Montréal
Affiliation in Japan: N/A (short-term)
Project title: The Cyber Attack Against SONY:New Challenges and Opportunities Ahead in Cyberdiplomacy and Cybersecurity

Nicholas Fraser

Position at time of fellowship: PhD Candidate, Department of Political Science, University of Toronto
Affiliation in Japan: Waseda University
Project title: Bureaucratic Discretion: A Comparative Study of Refugee Status Determination Procedures

Kimie Hara

Position at time of fellowship: Professor, Department of History and Political Science, University of Waterloo
Affiliation in Japan: University of Tokyo
Project title: The San Francisco System: Politics, Security and Regional Conflicts in the Asia-Pacific

Alexander Yves-Andreas Schweinsberg

Current position: PhD Candidate, Department of History, Yale University
Affiliation in Japan: Osaka City University
Project title: The Hinterland Next Door: Uneven Modernity and Rural Decline in Wakayama

Show 2016 Recipients

Amin Ghadimi

Position at time of fellowship: PhD Candidate, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University
Affiliation in Japan: University of Tokyo
Project title: The Second Meiji Revolution: Democracy and the Japanese Empire, 1873-1890

Joshua Mostow

Position at time of fellowship: Professor, Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia
Affiliation in Japan: Gakushūin University
Project title: The Hundred Poets and Early-Modern Literary Literacy

Robert Pontsioen

Position at time of fellowship: Researcher, Asian Cultural History Program, Dept. of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
Affiliation in Japan: University of Tsukuba
Project title: Strategies for Cultural Heritage Preservation: Traditional Craft Practice and Promotion in Tokyo

Mark Rowe

Position at time of fellowship: Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies, McMaster University
Affiliation in Japan: N/A (short-term)
Project title: Female Buddhist Priests in Contemporary Japan

Show 2015 Recipients

Andrew Campana

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University
Affiliation in Japan: Keio University, Tokyo
Project title: Poetry Across Media in 20th-Century Japan

Namiko Kunimoto

Position at time of fellowship: Assistant Professor, Department of Art History, Ohio State University
Affiliation in Japan: Sophia University, Tokyo
Project title: Anxious Bodies – Gender and Nation in Postwar Japanese Art

Marie-Josée Lorrain

Position at time of fellowship: Professor, Department of Human Resource Management, Université du Québec à Montréal
Affiliation in Japan: N/A (short-term)
Project title: Improving Intra-Organizational Communication – A Lesson from Japanese Organizational Communication Practices

Aaron Peters

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, Department of History, University of Toronto
Affiliation in Japan: Doshisha University, Kyoto
Project title: A Complicated Alliance: Indo-Japanese Relations, 1915-1947

Maxime Polleri

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, Department of Social Anthropology, York University
Affiliation in Japan: Saitama University
Project title: Nuclear Politics – A Study of Experience, Expertise and Science in Fukushima, Japan

Marc Steinberg

Position at time of fellowship: Associate Professor, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University
Affiliation in Japan: University of Tokyo
Project title: Media Strategies around Contents and Platforms in Japan

Show 2014 Recipients

Scott W. Aalgaard

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago
Affiliation in Japan: Tokyo University of the Arts
Project title: Marginal Borderlands – Tracing Critical Voices on Japan’s Peripheral Frontiers

Jeffrey Alexander

Position at time of fellowship: Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Wisconsin-Parkside
Affiliation in Japan: N/A (short-term)
Project title: Working for Johnny Walker – Prestige, Masculinity, and Whisky Advertising in Postwar Japan

Ken Coates

Position at time of fellowship: Canada Research Chair in Regional Innovation, Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan
Affiliation in Japan: Slavic & Eurasian Studies Research Centre, Hokkaido University
Project title: Responding to the 21st Century – Economic Challenges and Opportunities in Rural Areas and Small Towns in Hokkaido

 Joel Legassie

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, Department of History, University of Victoria
Affiliation in Japan: Date City Institute of Funkawan Culture
Project title: Knowing the North Country – Orders of Information in Modern Hokkaido, Japan 1869-1941

Show 2013 Recipients

Joshua Baxter

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, Department of East Asian Studies, University of Toronto
Affiliation in Japan: University of Tokyo
Project title: Nation, Capital, and the Sacred – A Historical Analysis of Yasukuni Shrine

Melanie Coughlin

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, Department of Philosophy, McGill University
Affiliation in Japan: Kyoto University
Project title: Nishitani’s Engagement with German Philosophy

Akane D’Orangeville

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, Department of Anthropology, University of Montreal
Affiliation in Japan: Wako University
Project title: Mental Health, Cultural Communities and Youth in Urban Japan – Creatively Helping Each Other

Darcy Gauthier

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, Department of Comparative Literature, University of Toronto
Affiliation in Japan: Sophia University
Project title: A Cross-Cultural Study of Ghost Narratives

Alexey Lushchenko

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, Department of History, University of British Columbia
Affiliation in Japan: Aoyama Gakuin University
Project title: Transformations of Genpei War Discourse in Premodern Japan and East Asia – Cultural Exchange, Language Choice, and Visions of the Past

Show 2012 Recipients

Myriam Grondin

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, Department of Anthropology, University of Montreal
Affiliation in Japan: Tokushima Prefectural Museum
Project title: Rupture, Transmission and Intermingling of Iya Heritage in Modern Times

Kazue Harada

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures, Washington University in St. Louis
Affiliation in Japan: Keio University
Project title: Japanese Women’s Science Fiction in the Post-1970s – Liminal Bodies and the Representation of Gender

Konrad Kalicki

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, Department of Political Science, University of British Columbia
Affiliation in Japan: University of Tokyo
Project title: Interests, Institutions, and the Politics of Managed Labour Migration in Japan, South Korea and Sweden

Tsuyoshi Ono

Position at time of fellowship: Associate Professor, Department of East Asian Studies, University of Alberta
Affiliation in Japan: N/A (short-term)
Project title: Completing the Transcription – Analysis and Translation of Ikema Textual Material

Andre Sorensen

Position at time of fellowship: Associate Professor, Department of Social Sciences, University of Toronto
Affiliation in Japan: University of Tokyo
Project title: Planning Processes – Visitors and Actions for Reconstruction and Revitalization in Iwate and Miyagi after 3/11

Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano

Position at time of fellowship: Associate Professor, Department of Film Studies, Carleton University
Affiliation in Japan: Kyoto University
Project title: Restoring Colonial Memories – Japanese Cinema in Taiwan from 1895-1945

Kevin Wilson

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, Department of History, University of Southern California
Affiliation in Japan: Daito Bunka University
Project title: Classical and Medieval Period Temple and Shrine Foundation Legends and the Hachiman Cult

Show 2011 Recipients

Suzanne Beth

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, University of Montreal
Affiliation in Japan: Nagoya University
Project title: Methodology in Intercultural Film Studies

James Manicom

Position at time of fellowship: Post Doctoral Fellow, University of Waterloo
Affiliation in Japan: Ocean Policy Research Foundation
Project title: Bridging Troubled Waters – China, Japan, and the 21st-Century Maritime Order in East Asia

Mikhail Molchanov

Position at time of fellowship: Associate Professor, St. Thomas University
Affiliation in Japan: Aoyama Gakuin University
Project title: Regionalism in Eurasia and Japan’s Promotion of East Asian Community

Cam Van Thi Phan

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, University of British Columbia
Affiliation in Japan: Kyoto University
Project title: Repentance Rituals – From the Textual Tradition to Religious Practices in Pre-Modern China

Martin Picard

Position at time of fellowship: Research Scholar, McGill University
Affiliation in Japan: Wako University
Project title: The Culture of Japanese Video Games

Geoffrey Rockwell

Position at time of fellowship: Professor, University of Alberta
Affiliation in Japan: Ritsumeikan University
Project title: Japanese Videogame Culture and Augmented Reality Games for Learning

Alexis Sornin

Position at time of fellowship: Head, Study Centre, Canadian Centre for Architecture
Affiliation in Japan: N/A (short-term)
Project title: CCA Library Reference Collection on Modern and Contemporary Japanese Architecture

Show 2010 Recipients

Jodie Beck

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, McGill University
Affiliation in Japan: Nihon University
Project title: Contesting Fictions – Japanese Feminist Speculative and Science Fiction

Ken Coates

Position at time of fellowship: Professor of History and Dean of Arts, University of Waterloo
Affiliation in Japan: N/A (short-term)
Project title: Digital Media in Japan – The Content Revolution

Anne Commons

Position at time of fellowship: Associate Professor, Department of East Asian Studies, University of Alberta
Affiliation in Japan: Osaka University
Project title: Shunrai’s Poetic Essentials – Canon Formation and Anecdotal Evidence in the Toshiyori Suino

Gideon Fujiwara

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, University of British Columbia
Affiliation in Japan: Hirosaki University
Project title: Spirituality and Identity in 19th-Century Japan – Hirata Nativism and the Tsugaru Group

Kimie Hara

Position at time of fellowship: Professor, University of Waterloo
Affiliation in Japan: Kyoto University
Project title: After San Francisco – The Post-World War II Japanese Peace Treaty and the Regional Conflicts

Carin Holroyd

Position at time of fellowship: Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Waterloo
Affiliation in Japan: N/A (short-term)
Project title: National Innovation and Environmental Technologies in Japan

Gergana Ivanova

Position at time of fellowship: PhD Candidate, University of British Columbia
Affiliation in Japan: Sophia University
Project title: Reception and Invention: Heian Women in Japanese Modernity

Nancy Jane Night

Position at time of fellowship: Adjunct Professor, University of Toronto
Affiliation in Japan: International Studies Program, Waseda University
Project title: Regionalization of higher Education in Asia – The Role of Japan

Victoria Lee

Position at time of fellowship: PhD Candidate, a Princeton University
Affiliation in Japan: The Kitazato Institute
Project title: The history of microbiology and industrial research in Japan, 1890-1930

Susan McDaniel

Position at time of fellowship: Prentice Research Chair & Professor of Sociology, University of Lethbridge
Affiliation in Japan: Kyoto University
Project title: Welfare Capitalism and the Production/Protection nexus in Ageing and Changing Japan

Rudiger Meyer

Position at time of fellowship: Associate Professor, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design
Affiliation in Japan: N/A
Project title: Packaging, its cultural dimension and ecological design

Sara Osenton

Position at time of fellowship: PhD Candidate, East Asian Studies, University of Toronto
Affiliation in Japan: Wako University
Project title: Parody, Paradox and Cyborgs: Contesting Histories, Bodies and Narratives in Contemporary Japanese Art

Maria Petrucci

Position at time of fellowship: PhD Candidate, History Department, University of British Columbia
Affiliation in Japan: Kyushu University
Project title: On Ebbing Waters: Japanese Piratical Networks in the Early Modern Period, 1550-1640

Xiaoli Qin

Position at time of fellowship: Department of World Cultures, Royal Ontario Museum
Affiliation in Japan: Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties / Kyoto University
Project title: Research of Yagi Site Artifacts in Canada Royal Ontario Museum

Chih-mien(Adrian) Tseng

Position at time of fellowship: PhD Dandidate, McMaster University
Affiliation in Japan: Tokyo University of Agriculture
Project title: The Comparison of the Concepts of Buddha-nature and Dao-nature of Medieval China

2000s

Show 2009 Recipients

Michael Berthin

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, London School of Economics & Political Science
Affiliation in Japan: Advanced Telecommunications Research International
Project title: An Ethnographic Examination of Social Robots in Japan

Sean Callaghan

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, Department of East Asian Studies, University of Toronto
Affiliation in Japan: Rikkyo University
Project title: Collectivities in Conflict – Life, Nation, and Affect in Prewar Japan

Eric Cazdyn

Position at time of fellowship: Associate Professor, Department of East Asian Studies, University of Toronto
Affiliation in Japan: N/A
Project title: Japanese Film Without Japan

Christopher Craig

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, Columbia University
Affiliation in Japan: Waseda University
Project title: The Middlemen of Modernity – Local Notables and Rural Development, 1890-1930

Aegean Leung

Position at time of fellowship: Assistant Professor, University of Victoria
Affiliation in Japan: University of Kitakyushu
Project title: Entrepreneurship as a Career Path of Highly Educated Japanese Women

Ken McLeod

Position at time of fellowship: Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Affiliation in Japan: N/A
Project title: Narrating a Narration – Visual Kei and Japanese Identity

Jonathan Service

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, Harvard University
Affiliation in Japan: University of Tokyo
Project title: Modernizing Music in Meiji Japan

Show 2008 Recipients

Jeffrey Alexander

Position at time of fellowship: Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Wisconsin-Parkside
Affiliation in Japan: N/A
Project title: Brewing and Distilling Success—The Postwar Recovery and Growth of Japan’s Beer and Spirit Producers

David Anderson

Position at time of fellowship: Associate Professor, Department of Curriculum Studies, University of British Columbia
Affiliation in Japan: N/A
Project title: Visitors’ Memories of the Aichi World Exposition 2005—A Study of the Psychology of Long-term Memory

Victor Hori

Position at time of fellowship: Associate Professor, Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University
Affiliation in Japan: Nanzan Institute of Religion and culture
Project title: Little Jade—Language, Experience and Scholarship in Zen

Andrew Kamei-Dyche

Position at time of fellowship: PhD Candidate, Department of History, University of Southern California
Affiliation in Japan: Saitama University
Project title: The Making of Modern Japanese Intellectual Culture—The Publisher Iwanami Shoten, 1913-1965

Satsuki Kawano

Position at time of fellowship: Associate Professor, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, University of Guelph
Affiliation in Japan: Waseda University, Asia-Pacific Studies
Project title: A Sociocultural Analysis of Family Formation Processes in Contemporary Japan—The Perceptions of Available Resources to Raise one More Child among Married Parents of a Pre-school Child

Tsuyoshi Ono

Position at time of fellowship: Associate Professor, Department of East Asian Studies, University of Alberta
Affiliation in Japan: N/A
Project title: The Ikema Project—Toward Audio and Video Documentation of Grammar and Discourse

Ming Tiampo

Position at time of fellowship: Assistant Professor, Department of Art History, Carleton University
Affiliation in Japan: Keio University
Project title: Cartographies of Gutai

Show 2007 Recipients

Franz D. Hofer

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, Cornell University
Affiliation in Japan: Nagoya University
Project title: Making History (into) Matter—Visual Representations of Traumatic Pasts in Postwar Japan and Germany

Namiko Kunimoto

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, University of California, Berkeley
Affiliation in Japan: Sophia University
Project title: Portraits of the Sun—Violence and Nationhood in the Art of the Gutai Group

Levi McLaughlin

Position at time of fellowship: Graduate student, Princeton University
Affiliation in Japan:University of Tokyo
Project title: Soka Gakkai from the Ground up—A History and Ethnography of Soka Gakkai

Simon Nantais

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, University of Victoria
Affiliation in Japan: Ritsumeikan University
Project title: Koreans under the American Occupation of Japan, 1945-1952

Robin O’Day

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, University of British Columbia
Affiliation in Japan: Sophia University, Faculty of Liberal Arts
Project title: Japan (Re)Structured—Under-employed Youth and Emerging Social Justice Movements

Alwyn Spies

Position at time of fellowship: Assistant Professor, University of British Columbia, Okanagan
Affiliation in Japan: N/A
Project title: Global Grannies—A Cross-cultural Comparison of Older Women’s Reactions and Responses to ‘Winter Sonata’

Jie X. Yang

Position at time of fellowship: Professor, University of Calgary
Affiliation in Japan: Rikkyo University
Project title: A Study on Narration of Medieval Picture Scrolls

Show 2006 Recipients

Matthew Linley

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, Australian National University
Affiliation in Japan: Waseda University, Graduate School of Political Science & Economics
Project title: Can Public Diplomacy Affect Foreign Policy Attitude? A Comparison of Japanese Public Diplomacy in China and South Korea

Rositsa Mutafchieva

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, McGill University
Affiliation in Japan: Osaka City University
Project title: The Construction of Buraku Vernacular in Contemporary Japan

Hisako Omori

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, McMaster University
Affiliation in Japan: Sophia University, Faculty of Comparative Culture
Project title: Modernity, Globalization, and Negotiated Identity—An Ethnographic Study of Roman Catholicism in Contemporary Japan

Yuko Yamade

Position at time of fellowship: Lecturer, Centre for East Asian Studies, University of Montreal
Affiliation in Japan: N/A
Project title: Project title: Japanese Women Translators in Meiji Japan—Origin of Women’s Writings and Cultural Translation

Show 2005 Recipients

James Gellert

Position at time of fellowship: Professor, Lakehead University
Affiliation in Japan: Gifu Shotoku Gakuen University
Project title: A Comparative Study of Popular Japanese and European Folktales

Seng Kuan

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, Harvard University
Affiliation in Japan: University of Tokyo
Project title: Tange Kenzo and his Circle—The Internationalization of a Modernist

Dominic Steavu-Balint

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, Stanford University
Affiliation in Japan: University of Tokyo
Project title: Seals of the Stars—Daoist Elements in Japanese Religion

James Tiessen

Position at time of fellowship: Associate Professor, DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University
Affiliation in Japan: N/A
Project title: Japan’s Top Hospitals—The Emergence and Identification of Best Practices

Show 2004 Recipients

David Edgington

Position at time of fellowship: Director, Centre for Japanese Research, University of British Columbia
Affiliation in Japan: Ritsumeikan University
Project title: Multicultural Planning in Japanese Cities

Caitlin Griffiths

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, University of Toronto
Affiliation in Japan:
Project title: Itinerant Nuns and Monks of Medieval Japan

Nam Lin Hur

Position at time of fellowship: Associate Professor, Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia
Affiliation in Japan: University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Humanities & Sociology, College of Letters
Project title: Zen Monks and the Japanese Invasion of Chosen Korea, 1592-1598—The Case of Seisho Jotai

Satoshi Ikeda

Position at time of fellowship: Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Alberta
Affiliation in Japan: Kyoto University, Centre for Southeast Asian Studies
Project title: Japan’s Failed Modernization and the Crisis of Ideology—East Asian Regional and World System Analyses of Seclusionism, Emperorism, and Corporocentrism

Ken Kawashima

Position at time of fellowship: Assistant Professor, Department of East Asian Studies, University of Toronto
Affiliation in Japan: Hosei University, Deptartment of Economics
Project title: Colonialism, Culture and Korean Labor Power in Japan (1917-1937)

Anne McKnight

Position at time of fellowship: Assistant Professor, Department of East Asian Studies, McGill University
Affiliation in Japan: N/A
Project title: Nakagami Kenji and Postwar Minoritarian Literature

Livia Rodica Monnet

Position at time of fellowship: Professor, Department of Comparative Literature, University of Montreal
Affiliation in Japan: Kyoto University
Project title: Women’s Cinema and New Media Art in Contemporary Japan: History, Theory, Criticism, and a Digital Archive

Show 2003 Recipients

Robert Carter

Position at time of fellowship: Professor, Department of Philosophy, Trent University
Affiliation in Japan: Kansai Gaidai
Project title: The Practice of Ethics/ The Ethics of Practice

Mark Driscoll

Position at time of fellowship: Assistant Professor, Department of East Asian Studies, University of Alberta
Affiliation in Japan: N/A
Project title: Japanese Modernism as Global Modernism—Re-situating the Erotic-Grotesque-Nonsense

Joel Perron

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, University of Toronto
Affiliation in Japan: Kokusai Nihon Bunka Center
Project title: Okakura Kazuko and Irreconcilable Japonismes

Romin Tafarodi

Position at time of fellowship: Associate Professor, University of Toronto
Affiliation in Japan: University of Tokyo
Project title: Self-esteem in Japan and Canada—A Structural Analysis

Show 2002 Recipients

Christina Laffin

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, Columbia University
Affiliation in Japan: University of Tokyo, Historiographical Institute
Project title: Women and Cultural Production—A Socio-literary Critique of Heian and Kamakura Travel Diaries

Monica Dix

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, University of British Columbia
Affiliation in Japan: Gakusyuin University
Project title: Women, Religion and Myth—Presentations of Chujohime in Religious and Secular Hand-Scroll Paintings

Show 2001 Recipients

Eric Cazdyn

Position at time of fellowship: Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Affiliation in Japan: Hosei University
Project title: Globalization and Japan—Between Aesthetics and Political-Economy

Jacob Kovalio

Position at time of fellowship: Professor, Carleton University
Affiliation in Japan:
Project title: Asianism in Japan and Asia Pacific—Meaning, Importance and Future Potential Impact

Show 2000 Recipients

Tsuyoshi Kawasaki

Position at time of fellowship: Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Simon Fraser University
Affiliation in Japan: Osaka University
Project title: Post-classical Realism as the Theoretical Foundation of Japanese Security Policy

Sharalyn Orbaugh

Position at time of fellowship: Associate Professor, Departments of Asian Studies and Women’s Studies, University of British Columbia
Affiliation in Japan:
Project title: General Nogi’s Wife—Gender and Japanese Modernity

Catherine Osborne

Position at time of fellowship: Independent scholar
Affiliation in Japan: N/A
Project title: Japan in the Year 2001

Teri Jane Ursacki

Position at time of fellowship: Associate Professor, University of Calgary
Affiliation in Japan: Hokkaido University
Project title: Changes in Managerial Promotion Practices in Japanese Corporations—Extent, Determinants and Consequences

Raymond Vézina

Position at time of fellowship: Professor, School of Design, Université du Québec à Montréal
Affiliation in Japan:
Project title: A Study of Makoto Nakamura’s Posters for Shiseido

1990s

Show 1999 Recipients

Thomas Heyd

Position at time of fellowship: Professor, University of Victoria
Affiliation in Japan: Konan University
Project title: Nature in Japanese Culture—Beyond Paradox

Wenran Jian

Position at time of fellowship: Professor, University of Alberta
Affiliation in Japan: University of Tokyo
Project title: Japan’s Response to the Rise of China as a Potential Superpower

Kerri Sakamoto

Position at time of fellowship: Writer
Affiliation in Japan: Meiji University
Project: Research for novel Love in the Flesh

Setsu Shigematsu

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, Cornell University
Affiliation in Japan: University of Tokyo
Project title: Second Wave Feminist Theory in Japan—Activists, Academics and the Media

Alwyn Spies

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, University of British Columbia
Affiliation in Japan: Ritsumeikan University
Project title: Reading the Self—Shoujo Fiction

Show 1998 Recipients

Jill Grant

Position at time of fellowship: Professor, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design
Affiliation in Japan: Chukyo University, Department of Sociology
Project title: Planning Sustainable Communities in Japan

Nam Lin Hur

Position at time of fellowship: Assistant Professor, Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia
Affiliation in Japan: Kanagawa University
Project title: Death and Social Order in the Tokugawa World

Jirina Marton

Position at time of fellowship: Author/ Illustrator
Affiliation in Japan: Intercultural Education Institution
Project title: Japanese Myths and Tales in Western Culture

John McCarthy

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, University of Toronto
Affiliation in Japan: University of Tokyo
Project title: Modern Japanese Literature and National Origins

Joe Moore

Position at time of fellowship: Professor, Department of Pacific and Asian Studies, University of Victoria
Affiliation in Japan: Wako University
Project title: The Post-War Revival of Japanese Jazz

Show 1997 Recipients

Alan Belcher

Position at time of fellowship: Sculptor & Photographer
Affiliation in Japan: Wacoal Art Center
Project: Artist residency and research

Françoise Cormier

Position at time of fellowship: Artist
Affiliation in Japan: Canadian Embassy in Tokyo
Project title: The Touched and the Untouched

Paul David Hoelzley

Position at time of fellowship: Associate Professor, Trinity Western University
Affiliation in Japan: Gifu Music Therapy Institute
Project title: N/A

Livia Rodica Monnet

Position at time of fellowship: Associate Professor, Department of Literature, Université de Montréal
Affiliation in Japan: International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Kokusai Nihon Bunka Center)
Project title: Cinema and Cinematic Visuality in Japanese Culture in the 1920s and 1930s

Sinh Vinh

Position at time of fellowship: Professor, Department of History and Classics, University of Alberta
Affiliation in Japan: International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Kokusai Nihon Bunka Center)
Project title: N/A

Alan Thompson

Position at time of fellowship: PhD candidate, University of Toronto
Affiliation in Japan: Aoyama Gakuin University
Project title: Intercultural Varieties of English in Japan

Show 1996 Recipients

Yoko Collier-Sanuki

Position at time of fellowship: Professor, University of British Columbia
Affiliation in Japan: International Christian University
Project title: Functions of Subordinate Clauses in Japanese Conversational and Written Discourse

Jacob Kovalio

Position at time of fellowship: Professor, Carleton University
Affiliation in Japan: Daito Bunka University
Project title: Yudayakaron—Japanese Anti-Semitism as Ultranationalism

Laure Lynne Paquette

Position at time of fellowship: Professor, Lakehead University
Affiliation in Japan: The Japan Forum on International Relations, Inc.
Project title: Japan as the Linchpin of Canadian Policy in East Asia

Paul Parker

Position at time of fellowship: Professor, University of Waterloo
Affiliation in Japan: National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan (Kokuritsu Kankyo Kenkyu Sho)
Project title: Japanese Trade and the Environment—An Evaluation of the Ecological Footprint of Japanese Commodity Trade

Catherine Russell

Position at time of fellowship: Associate Professor, Concordia University
Affiliation in Japan: Waseda University Faculty of Letters
Project title: Women in Japanese Film 1930-1960

Thomas Waldichuk

Position at time of fellowship: Assistant Professor, Thompson Rivers University
Affiliation in Japan: University of Tsukuba
Project title: Quality of Life of the Elderly in Konjuka Settlements in Tokyo


For more than 40 years, The Japan Foundation has provided support in the form of fellowships to scholars of Japanese studies, from Ph.D. candidates to preeminent leaders in their fields. These prestigious fellowships have given scholars the opportunity to conduct critical research in Japan.

In 2020, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of The Japan Foundation, Toronto, we shone a light on the Japan Foundation Fellowship program with the Fellow Gallery to commemorate past years of valuable intellectual exchange between Canada and Japan. We invite all of our supporters, patrons, and friends to meet our past Fellows and learn about their achievements and experiences during and after their fellowship.