East Asian Studies

My research interests focus around legal history and the history of the physical and life sciences, most often in Japan but sometimes in other places too. For my dissertation I am delving into the history of cultured pearls by looking at two important ways, namely aquaculture and gemological appraisal, through which people worked with them in Japan and in France.

I received an undergraduate degree with high honors in chemistry from Dartmouth College. I have a master's degree in East Asian studies from Stanford University too. Several of the years that passed between the above-mentioned degrees were happily spent living and working in Japan. I spent the 2011-12 academic year as a visiting researcher at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris. I will be affiliated with Kobe University starting this fall.