Japanese Studies Teaching Staff
Dr Barak Kushner
Contact Information
Email: bk284@cam.ac.uk
Tel: 01223 335174
Website: www.barakkushner.net
Current Position
University Senior Lecturer in Modern Japanese History
Biographical Details
Barak Kushner received his BA from Brandeis University (USA) and then began his career as a high school teacher in Chicago, Illinois. Later, he traveled to Iwate, Japan where he taught English, lived in a Buddhist temple, and attended Japanese elementary school, studying Japanese along with other students ages 6-12. He lived in Japan for over 5 years and studied at Rikkyo University and the University of Tokyo. He taught western history at Shenyang Teacher’s University in northern China where he also studied Chinese and began research in Chinese history. After returning to the United States he attended graduate school at Princeton University and received a PhD in Japanese history.
Dr. Kushner has been invited to speak about East Asian History at National Taiwan University, Nanjing University, SOAS, University of Bristol, University of Oxford, Tokyo University, Waseda University, the University of Alaska at Anchorage, Kansas University, Western Michigan University, Indiana State University, Hebrew University (Jerusalem), George Washington University, Rowan University and the University of Oregon. He also serves as an historical consultant for the Japan Society in New York City.
Research Interests
Barak Kushner specializes in research on modern Japan, Sino-Japan relations, and media history. He is interested in food history, wartime propaganda and media, international relations and history of the Cold War. He welcomes enquiries from graduate students interested in working in the field of modern Japanese history, including the history of Sino-Japan relations, media, or food history
Publications
The Thought War, Kushner’s first book, delves into the history of wartime Japanese propaganda. His second book (almost finished), entitled Slurp!: A social history of ramen, the Japanese noodle soup, focuses on food and history. He is also working on a third book that analyzes the postwar adjudication of Japanese war crimes in China, tentatively titled, "Men to Devils and Devils to Men": Japanese War Crimes and Cold War Sino-Japan Relations. Kushner’s academic articles have appeared in Diplomatic History, The International History Review, Japanese Studies, Journal of Popular Culture, and the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. He also has three book chapters in press: one concerns a postwar media history of Godzilla. The two other chapters deal with Kamishibai and children’s wartime propaganda in Japan, and the Chinese influence on Taisho notions of modern cuisine in Japan. A chapter on Japan's 1940 Olympic plans is also forthcoming in an edited volume.
