David Howell Named Professor of Japanese History at Harvard

Cambridge, Mass. May 6, 2010 - Historian David L. Howell, whose research has reframed pre-1868 Japan using perspectives from the nation's geographic and social peripheries, has been named professor of Japanese history at Harvard University, effective July 1, 2010. Howell comes to Harvard's Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Princeton University, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1993. He is currently Nissan Professor in Japanese Studies and chair of Princeton's Department of East Asian Studies. "Professor Howell is one of the most imaginative historians of his generation, and one who excels in rethinking fundamental questions," says Diana Sorensen, dean of arts and humanities in Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. "As a teacher and mentor in the field of early modern Japanese studies, he has no peer. At Princeton his classes on centuries-old Japanese documents are legendary, and his former students include several eminent historians.