SUZANNE G. O BRIEN Department of History Boston University 226 Bay State Road, Rm. 203 Boston, MA 02215 sgobrien@bu.edu Tel (617) 353-8309 Fax (617) 353-2556 EDUCATION Columbia University, New York, NY Ph.D. East Asian Languages and Cultures 2003 M.A. East Asian Languages and Cultures 1997 Certificate in Feminist Theory, Institute for 1997 Research on Women and Gender Stanford University, Stanford, CA B.A. History (Honors) 1991 FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS 2010 Japan Foundation Long-Term Research Fellowship, Summer 2010. 2009 Northeast Asia Council of the Association of Asian Studies Travel Grant, Spring 2010. 2004 Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies Postdoctoral Fellowship, Harvard University, summer 2004 to summer 2005. 2004 Outstanding Professor Award, Greek Council and Order of Omega, Loyola Marymount University, April 2004. 2003 Summer Research Travel Grant, Loyola Marymount University, summer 2003. 2003 Center for Teaching Excellence Course Development Grant, Loyola Marymount University, fall 2003. 2002 Visiting scholar, Hoover Institution on War Revolution and Peace, Stanford University, summer 2002. 2001 DeBary Fellowship in East Asian Studies, post-doctoral fellowship, Heyman Center for the Humanities, Columbia University (declined) 1999-2001 President s Fellowship, Columbia University 1997-98 Japan Foundation Dissertation Research Fellowship, Japan Foundation Suzanne G. O Brien 2
1996 Social Science Research Council Dissertation Workshop, SSRC 1994-95 President s Fellowship, Columbia University 1993-94 Fellow of the Faculty of the Dept. of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Columbia University TEACHING EXPERIENCE Boston University, Boston, MA 2008- Assistant Professor, Modern Japanese History present Teach survey courses on modern Japanese history, seminars and colloquia on samurai, interwar and wartime Japan, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, orientalism and gender in Japanese history. Serve as faculty advisor to academic Asian Studies student group. Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA 2001- Assistant Professor, Modern Asian History 2008 Taught introductory-level courses on history of modern Asia and advanced undergraduate courses on early modern Japan, embodiment in Japanese history, and war and memory in Asia. Advised history majors and direct honors theses. Columbia University, New York, NY 1999, 2000 Undergraduate Thesis Advisor Advised undergraduates writing senior theses for the East Asian Languages and Cultures Department 1999 Preceptor, Major Topics in East Asian Civilizations Co-taught seminar on topics in Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese history from pre-history to the present. Designed writing assignments and examinations, and led discussion groups. 1994, 1996 Teaching Assistant, Introduction to Japanese Civilization Conducted discussion section for surveys of Japanese history from pre-history to present. Created weekly discussion questions, wrote assignments and examinations, and graded all student work. PUBLICATIONS & WORKS IN PROGRESS Splitting Hairs: History and the Politics of Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century Japan, Journal of Asian Studies 67:4, (December 2008). "Diverting Desires and Audiences: Kabuki, F zoku, and the State in Late Tokugawa Japan," article in Studies on Asia 4:1 (Spring 2007), http://www.isp.msu.edu/studiesonasia/ A Mock Trial or a Trial that Mocks?: Reflections on the 2000 Tribunal on Suzanne G. O Brien 3 Imperial Japan s Military Sexual Slavery, chapter in Barbara Brooks and Susan
Burns, ed.s, Gender and Law in the Japanese Imperium, 1868-1952, forthcoming University of Michigan Press, 2010. Customizing Daily Life: Representing and Reforming Daily Life in Nineteenth- Century Japan, book manuscript under review, Harvard University Press. Translation, Fujime Yuki, Japanese Feminism and Commercialized Sex: the Alliance of Militarism and Prohibitionism, in Social Science Japan Journal, 9:1 (April 2006), p.33-50. Book Review of Feminism in Modern Japan: Citizenship, Embodiment, and Sexuality by Vera Mackie in Japanese Language and Literature, vol. 39 (1), April 2005. Translator s Introduction and translation. Yoshimi Yoshiaki, Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military During World War II (Columbia University Press, 2000). Translation. Sone Hiromi, Conceptions of Geisha: A Case Study of the City of Miyazu, in Gender and Japanese History, vol.1 (Osaka University Press, 1999). Translation. Hirota Masaki, Notes on the Process of Creating Women in the Meiji Period, in Gender and Japanese History, vol.2 (Osaka University Press, 1999). PRESENTATIONS Japanese Cuisine: Serving up the Nation, International History Institute s Food and History series, Boston University, March 4, 2010. Pushing the Limits of Leisure : Smoking in Early Postwar Japan, Presentation to Leisure in Asia Project Group, Boston University, February 24, 2010. Yamato: History and Memory in a contemporary Japanese WWII film, International History Institute s WWII film series, Boston University, April 23, 2009. Asia in Meiji Japan's Encounters with the Customs of the World, Boston University Center for the Study of Asia inaugural conference, April 2, 2009. Paper presentation, Getting Ac-customed to Global Society: Mapping the World s Customs in early Meiji Japan, BU Asian Studies faculty group, February 27, 2009. Defining Japan across the 19th Century: Discourse on F zoku (customs) and the Bounding of the Japanese Empire, presentation for Tertulia, junior faculty Suzanne G. O Brien 4 seminar in the humanities, Boston University, November 18, 2008.
Taming Difference through the Rhetoric of Custom (f zoku) from Tokugawa to Meiji, paper presentation, Empire and Nation in East Asia: Rhetorics and Images Conference, Emory University, March 26-27, 2007. The Mutual Construction of Nation and Empire in 1870s Japan," invited lecture, St. Anthony s College, Oxford University, December 15, 2006. Concerning Custom(s): Daily Life and the Discourse of Custom in Nineteenth- Century Japan, invited presentation, Department of Asian Languages, Stanford University, December 4, 2006. Debating Custom in 19 th Century Japan, invited presentation, Boston College, History Department lecture series, November 29, 2006. Gender and Constitutional Revision, presentation to the Constitutional Revision Kenky kai, Harvard University, October 17, 2006. A Mock Trial or a Trial that Mocks?: Reflections on the Tribunal on Military Sexual Slavery, paper presentation at the Gender and Law in the Japanese Imperium, 1868-1952 conference, University of Chicago, May 20, 2006. Chinese Imports and Cultural Transformations in Eighteenth-Century Japan, paper presentation at annual conference of the American Society for Eighteenth- Century Studies, Montreal, March 30, 2006. Custom-zing Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century Japan, invited presentation in History Department, UCLA, March 18, 2006. Contesting Custom in Nineteenth-Century Japan, presentation in History Department lecture series, Smith College, February 6, 2006. Defining Habits: Customs and the Re-imagination of Japan in the 18th Century, paper presented at the annual meeting of the Group for Early Modern Cultural Studies, San Antonio, December 3, 2005. Mastering F zoku in Eighteenth-Century Japan: Reforming, Reviving and Recording Customs in Public Discourse, paper presentation at the Bloomington Eighteenth-Century Studies Workshop, Indiana University, May 12, 2005. Moving Audiences: From Containing to Promoting Kabuki s Affects on the Public, paper presentation at Affect, Emotion and Public Life in Modern East Asia workshop, Harvard University, May 6, 2005. Splitting Hairs: The Politics of Daily Life as History in Nineteenth-Century Japan, presentation at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University, April 6, 2005. Suzanne G. O Brien 5 Contests over Customs and Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century Japan, presentation at the Japan Forum lecture series, Harvard University, February 20, 2005.
Low Birth Rates and High Times in the Sex Industry: Struggles over Productive and Reproductive Sex in Contemporary Japan, paper presentation, Association of Asian Studies annual meeting, San Diego, March 5, 2004. Declining Birth Rates and the Booming Sex Industry: Representing Sexuality, Procreation, and Nation in Contemporary Japan, invited presentation, Asian Studies Center, Michigan State University at Lansing, February 23, 2004. Recalling Hiroshima on the Way to Iraq. Paper presented at forum on wars effects on civilians and combatants, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, February, 2003. Policing Men: Misdemeanors and New Masculinities. Paper presented at the Association of Asian Studies annual meeting, Washington, DC, April 5, 2002. Discomfiting Performances: Comfort Women and the Fictions of Japanese womanhood. Paper presented at Across Time and Genre: Reading and Writing Japanese Women s Texts conference, University of Alberta at Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, August 16-20, 2001. Cultural Studies Pedagogy. Presentation as member of a round-table on cultural studies at Yale University, May 2001. Custom-izing Daily Life in Meiji Japan: Customs and Bodies in Japanese Visions of Modernity, invited presentation at University of Toronto, February 2001. ACADEMIC/UNIVERSITY/COMMUNITY SERVICE 2009 Co-organizer, facilitator, How to Bring Your Kids Up Gay! student workshops, held in conjunction with Honoring Eve conference, Boston University, October 27, 28, 2009. 2009 Member, Organizing Committee, Panel Organizer, and Discussant, Honoring Eve: A Symposium Celebrating the Work of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, memorial conference, BU Junior Faculty Group, Spring and Fall, 2009. 2009 Member, Conference Committee, and Panel Organizer, Cultural Transmission and the Boundaries of Asia Panel, Boston University Center for the Study of Asia inaugural conference, Spring 2009. 2007 Discussant, Belief, Science and the Modern Divide in Asia, panel at annual Association of Asian Studies Conference, Boston, March 25, 2007. Suzanne G. O Brien 6 2005 Lecturer, Teaching about Modern China and Japan seminar for Los Angeles middle and high school teachers. Gave lectures on recent developments and themes in study of modern China and Japan to twenty-two teachers, Fall 2005.
2005 Co-organizer and Presenter, Affect, Emotion and Public Life in Modern East Asia, joint workshop of the Fairbank Center and Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University, May 13-15, 2005. 2003 Co-organizer and Lecturer, Teaching About Asia. Organized a series of seminars funded by the Freeman Foundation for high school teachers teaching world history. Designed curriculum, recruited speakers, delivered lectures, and helped design sample curricular activities, Spring 2003. 2002 Presenter, Facing History and Ourselves, and Los Angeles Center for International Studies. Gave presentation, Rescuing War Responsibility From the Nation to secondary school teachers at pedagogical workshop on remembrance and forgiveness, April 17, 2002. 2002 Lecturer, Teaching about Asia. Gave lectures on theme of Teaching Early Modern Japan, presentation to secondary school teachers participating in workshop sponsored by the Los Angeles Center for International Studies, at Pitzer College, Claremont, CA, February 16, 2002. 2002 Lecturer, Teaching about Asia. Gave lectures on theme of Teaching Modern Japan, to secondary school teachers participating in workshop sponsored by the Los Angeles Center for International Studies, at Pitzer College, Claremont, CA, March 16, 2002. 2001- Founder, Faculty Gender Studies Group, Loyola Marymount University. 2003 Recruited members and organized monthly meetings for faculty members from a variety of disciplines working on gender-related topics.