Faculty

Foreign Languages
Basque Literature, Contemporary Literature and Culture in the Spanish-speaking World

My main field of research is Basque Literature, and I also translate works of Basque-language authors into Japanese. Focused on Bernardo Atxaga's trajectory and works, I have considered the process of exponential development of contemporary literature in Basque since the mid-20th century. Other research interests include bilingualism in literatures produced in multilingual areas and/or in minoritized languages, translation (esp. self-translation) and world literature.

Foreign Languages
Cultural Anthropology

I have studied the history and culture of Wako (Japanese pirates), Ebune (sea nomads of Japan), and sea people in Japan; the transformation of the family in modern Korea; the education and identity of Korean residents in Japan; and the changing nature of conscription and perceptions in Korea. Recently, I have also studied colonialism and memories of war, and Asian food culture (especially Buddhism and meat-eating).

Foreign Languages
Russian Literature and Cultural History

My academic discipline is literary studies and cultural history, focused on Russia and other former Soviet republics as my main target of interest. While Russian culture originates in Europe, it incorporates Asian sub-regions in the process of historical development. In this sense, the Soviet Union, the “other” main actor of the Cold war, also appeared a Eurasian empire extending to the East and the West, in which I make much account of a comparative approach for plural areas, based on the politics of memory, migration of people, and cultural translation. Russia must be considered a significant contact zone in both European and Asian cultures.

Foreign Languages
Classical studies

The field of my research is ancient Greek literature. I am particularly interested in Greek tragedy of the fifth century BCE, what importance it held, as a dramatic institution, within the social discourse of democratic Athens. My interest also includes Mediterranean motifs such as hospitality, revenge and supplication as treated in the literary tradition of classical antiquity.

Foreign Languages
Early Modern Italian History, Urban Roman History, History of the Popes

My research focuses on the History of Rome in the early modern period. I pay attention to the figure of the Pope, who was not only the spiritual head of the Catholic world, but also a secular monarch who actually ruled over a vast territory in central Italy. I examine how the city of Rome was governed and the relationship between the popes and the city. While clarifying the particularities of Rome, I also aim to discover the general characteristics of the "state" of early modern period.

Foreign Languages
Spanish Art History

My research focuses on the Golden Age of painting in Spain. I am mainly interested in the works called “bodegones” from Velázquez’s formative years in Seville and trying to clarify the relationship of the origins of naturalism in Seville around 1600 and the entirely original works of Velázquez. My research interests also include: the art theory and the picture collecting in the first half of the 17th century Spain.