Faculty

Asian History
Modern East Asian History, History of Food as Cultural Exchange, and Chinese Urban History.

With Shanghai as my main field of research, I have studied social change in modern Chinese cities. My work has also explored the theme of cultural exchange through food, examining how nationalism since the 20th century has transformed Chinese cuisine and how Japanese imperialism influenced its acceptance. More recently, I have been interested in the development of regional cuisines in contemporary China and the historical identities of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean cuisines. I try to scrutinize and check by comparing books, magazines, newspapers and corporate and administrative documents of each city and conduct supplementary interviews to verify specific facts as much as I can.

Asian History
Social History of Modern Middle East, and History of Modern Arab Societies

Focusing on the society of modern Egypt, I have studied the mutual transformation of Middle Eastern societies and the modern institution such as prisons. Now, I'm working on research about public health and agricultural development in 20th-century Egypt.

Asian History
Social History in Early Modern China, Chinese Gender History

I explore ordinary women’s life from the late Ming to the late Qing periods. As those women did not leave any records by themselves, I focus on judicial records and official archives. I am interested in the morals and customs which were reflected in those records. In recent years, I have developed an interest in report on court cases in newspapers of the late Qing period.

Asian History
Middle Eastern Social History, The History of the Arabic Political Culture

My research focuses on the social history of Egypt in the Mamluk and Ottoman eras. I am particularly interested in the political culture and social relationship of pre-modern Nile Delta cities. I am currently working on urban notables of al-Mahalla al-Kubra based on the analysis of Ottoman court registers.

Asian History
History of the Ottoman Empire, Urban Social History of the Middle East

I have an interest in the issues that concern the urban lives of people in cities in the Middle East, especially during the period of the Ottoman Empire. I pay particular attention to the merchants and craftsmen who make up the majority of the urban population, even today, and research the people of commerce and industry and the unions of Ottoman-era Istanbul. In order to reveal the actual living conditions of merchants and craftsmen as well as the management of unions, I extract and analyze related cases from historical sources, namely sources called the Ottoman Court Records. Additionally, this same research interest has led me to research concerning contemporaneous entertainment, consumer culture, and charity work.