Japanese Studies Teaching Staff
Dr Brigitte Steger
Contact Information
Email: bs382@cam.ac.uk
Tel: 01223 335140
Current Position
- University Lecturer in Modern Japanese Studies (Society)
- Fellow of Downing College
Links
Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Downing College, Cambridge
Sixth EAJS Workshop for Doctoral Students, University of Cambridge
Biographical Details
Brigitte Steger is Austrian and earned her Mag. phil. and Dr. phil. degrees in Japanese Studies (with minors in Sociology and Political Science) from the University of Vienna. From 1994-1996 she spent two years at the University of Kyoto to conduct research for her doctoral dissertation; in 2002/03 and in 2006 she was on research stays in Tokyo (Meiji and Sophia Universities). She has many years of teaching/research experience at the University of Vienna, but also held posts at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and the Karoli Gaspar University in Budapest. Her teaching mainly dealt with the various aspects of Japanese society, with intercultural communication as well as with methodologies and methods in qualititative social science research. In Cambridge, she teaches courses on Japanese society and welcomes enquiries to supervise students who are interested in doing research on the various aspects of Japanese society. She is a member of the Council of the European Association for Japanese Studies (2008-2011).
Research Interests
Brigitte Steger specializes in Japanese society, with special emphasis on the cultural history and anthropology of daily life. In her research, she has always been intrigued by questions of the cultural and social embeddedness of seemingly natural, bodily matters and daily life. Her master’s thesis explored childbirth and midwifery from sociological and political perspectives, especially the incorporation of midwifery into police administration and of the introduction of concepts of hygiene in modern Japan. The doctoral dissertation dealt with sleep, especially sleeping times. For her doctoral disseration she was awarded the ‘Bank Austria Prize 2002 for the Promotion of Innovative Research at the University of Vienna’, and the published book, (Keine) Zeit zum Schlafen? Kulturhistorische und sozialanthropologische Erkundungen japanischer Schlafgewohnheiten. (Münster: LIT 2004) earned her the ‘Science Award of the Federal State of Vorarlberg, Austria, 2005, Special Award for an Outstanding Publication’. Consequently she was also nominated as ‘Austrian of the Year’ at the ‘Austria 2005’ in the category of science and research.
Currently, she is writing a history of timing day and night. In particular, she investigates how people in pre-modern Japan dealt with the marshalling of time according to daily schedules. This study aims to provide a tool for understanding how time consciousness prepared the Japanese for the industrialisation and modernisation that occurred after the re-opening of the country in the second half of the nineteenth century. It thus aims to add to the discussion on work ethics and modernisation. Furthermore, the Japanese history of timing could potentially challenge existing theories in the cultural history of time and the hour deduced from research conducted in Europe and the USA.
Publications
Books and edited volumes:
with Lodewijk Brunt (eds) Worlds of sleep. Berlin: Frank & Timme 2008, 252 pp.
Inemuri. Wie die Japaner schlafen und was wir von ihnen lernen können. Reinbek b. Hamburg: Rowohlt 2007. Published in Braille 2008.
(ed.) Timing daily life in contemporary Japan = special issue of Time & Society (Sage publications) 15/2-3 (October 2006).
(Keine) Zeit zum Schlafen?Kulturhistorische und sozialanthropologische Erkundungen japanischer Schlafgewohnheiten [(No) time to sleep? – Cultural history and social anthropology of Japanese sleep habits]. Münster et al.: LIT 2004 (1st edition Jan. 2004, 2nd rev. edition Oct. 2004), 504 pp.
with Lodewijk Brunt (eds) Night-time and Sleep in Asia and the West: Exploring the dark side of life. London: RoutledgeCurzon 2003. paperback: Vienna: University of Vienna 2006, 226pp.
Academic articles in refereed journals and academic edited volumes:
with Andre Gingrich: ‘Kulturkreis’, Fernand Kreff, Eva-Maria Knoll and Andre Gingrich (eds) Handbuch Globalisierung. Anthropologische und sozialwissenschaftliche Zugänge zur Praxis. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp 2008 (in print).‘Schlaf, Sex und Sushi. Erkundigungen in Japans Alltagsleben’ (‘Sleep, sex, and sushi. Investigations into everyday life in Japan’), Sepp Linhart (ed.) Wiener Japanvorlesungen zum 40-jährigen Bestehen des Instituts für Japanologie an der Universität Wien (= Beiträge zur Japanologie 40; in print).
‘Early to rise: Making Japanese healthy, wealthy, wise, virtuous, and beautiful’, Lodewijk Brunt and Brigitte Steger (2008 eds): Worlds of sleep. Frank & Timme, 211-235.
with Lodewijk Brunt: ‘Introduction’, Lodewijk Brunt and Brigitte Steger (2008 eds): Worlds of sleep. Frank & Timme, 9-30.
‘Introduction: Timing daily life in Japan’, Timing Daily Life in Contemporary Japan (= Time & Society 15/2-3 (October 2006), 171-175.
‘Napping through class to success. Japanese notions of time and diligence’, Timing Daily Life in Japan (= Time & Society; in print, October 2006), 197-214.
‘Schlafen. Nicht Arbeit, nicht Freizeit, aber …’, Roland Domenig, Susanne Formanek and Wolfram Manzenreiter (eds) Über Japan denken. Japan überdenken. Festschrift für Sepp Linhart zu seinem sechzigsten Geburtstag von seinen Schülerinnen und Schülern, Münster et al.: LIT 2005, 233–255.
‘Creating free time, creating positive energy. Why Japan rises early,’ Paideuma 51, 2005, 181–192.
‘Getting away with sleep. Social and cultural aspects of dozing in Parliament,’ Social Science Japan Journal 6/2 (October 2003), 181–197.
‘Infōmaru na katsudō toshite no inemuri. Kokkai giin no inemuri ronsō o kangaeru’ (Sleep as an informal beaviour. The inemuri debate in Parliament), Nakamaki Hirochika and Mitchell Sedgwick (eds) Nihon no soshiki no jinruigaku. Tōkyō: Tōhō Shuppan 2003, 325–343.
‘Negotiating Japanese sleep patterns,’ Brigitte Steger and Lodewijk Brunt (eds) Night-time and Sleep in Asia and the West: Exploring the dark side of life. London: RoutledgeCurzon 2003, 65–86.
with Lodewijk Brunt: ‘Introduction: Into the night and the world of sleep,’ Brigitte Steger and Lodewijk Brunt (eds) Night-time and Sleep in Asia and the West: Exploring the dark side of life. London: RoutledgeCurzon 2003, 1–23.
‘Schlafen als Forschungsgegenstand der sozialwissenschaftlich orientierten Japanologie’ (‘Sleep as a research topic in Japanese Studies’), Reinhard Zöllner (ed.) Japanforschung – Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Japanforschung 2/2002, 6–20.
‘Kodaijin wa itsu neteita ka’ (‘The administration of sleeping time in ancient Japan’), in Sepp Linhart and Inoue Shō’ichi (eds) Nihonjin no rōdō to asobi: rekishi to genjō. Kyōto: Nichibunken 1998, 13–33.
‘Die Modernisierung der Geburtshilfe vom unreinen Gewerbe zum Karriereberuf oder Die Dissemination staatlicher Kontrolle ins Private’ (‘The Modernisation of midwifery from an ‘impure trade’ to a career, or the dissemination of state control to private enterprise’), Ilse Lenz and Michiko Mae (eds) Getrennte Welten, gemeinsame Moderne? Geschlechterverhältnisse in Japan, Opladen: Leske und Budrich 1997, 150–178.
‘Tabi no negurashi – ryokōchū no nemuri no bunka’ (‘Travel as lullaby. The culture of sleep in travelling Japan’), in Tabi no bunka kenkyūjo (ed.) Tabi no bunka kenkyūjo hōkoku, Tōkyō, Vol. 4, December 1996, 119–130.
‘From Impurity to Hygiene: The Role of Midwives in the Modernisation of Japan,’ Japan Forum, 2 (October) 1994, 175–187.
‘Fujinkai – Javanese Women under Japanese Occupation: Including some comments from Idrus’ short story,’ P. Centrum Roznov for the Japan Center Prague (ed.) Traditional and modern in Japanese literature and language, Prague 1993 (1994), 61–71.
‘Frauen im Krieg – Erfahrungen mit lebensgeschichtlichen Interviews’ (‘Women in War – experiences in life history interviews’), Sepp Linhart, Erich Pilz and Reinhard Sieder (eds) Sozialwissenschaftliche Methoden in der Ostasienforschung (= Beiträge zur Japanologie 32), Vienna 1994, 105–118.
Other academic articles:
‘Inemuri to tanuki neiri’, Takada Masatoshi, Horii Tadao and Shigeta Masayuki (eds): Suimin bunka o manabu hito no tame ni [university textbook on the sociology of sleep]. Kyōto: Sekai Shisōsha 2008, 90-91.
‘Wie die Japaner schlafen, und was wir von ihnen lernen können’, Brücke 2/2007, 8-10.
‘Die Vierstundenschlaf-Methode und andere Schlaftrends in Japan’ (‘Recent sleeping trends in Japan’), Informationen des Akademischen Arbeitskreises Japan. Minikomi 67 (2003), 5–9.
‘Nemuri no bunka. Kokkai giin no inemuri ronsō o kangaeru’ (‘Sleeping culture. Thinking about the debate on inemuri of the Parliamentarians’), Meiji Daigaku Bungakubu (ed.) Meiji Daigaku Bungakubu, Uiin Daigaku Jinbun kagakubu gakujutsu kyōtei teiketsu kinen kōenkai oyobi kokusai kenkyū happyōkai kiroku March 2003, 2–19.
‘Inemuri suru Nihonjin’ (‘Napping Japanese’), Sensho mechie henshūbu (ed.): Nippon wa omoshiroi ka (Is Japan interesting?). Tōkyō: Kōdansha (= Kōdansha sensho mechie), 84–97.
‘Schlafen in Japan (1): ‘Inemuri’ – Nickerchen in der Öffentlichkeit’, dieUniversität.at – Science goes public. 25. 7. 2002 (http://www.univie.ac.at/dieuniversitaet/2002/science).
‘Schlafen in Japan (2): Die Freiheit beginnt mit geschlossenen Augen’, dieUniversität.at – Science goes public. 26. 7. 2002 (http://www.univie.ac.at/dieuniversitaet/2002/science).
‘Schlafen in Japan (3): Sind JapanerInnen in Wahrheit faul?’, dieUniversität.at – Science goes public. 30. 7. 2002 (http://www.univie.ac.at/dieuniversitaet/2002/science).
‘Jūkyūseki Edo to Uiin ni okeru “yoru” to “nemuri” / Nachtzeit und Schlafkultur in Edo/Tokyo und Wien’, Mitteilungsheft: Gemeinsames Symposium der Meiji Universität Tokyo und der Universität Wien 25. –26. 1. 2001. 2001, 21–28 (in Japanese with a German summary).
‘Nihonjin wa naze densha no naka de nemuru no ka’ (‘Why do Japanese sleep in the train’), is 84/2000 (10 September), 6–9.
‘Neunundzwanzig Ansichten von der Nacht’ (‘Twenty-nine views of the night’), Informationen des Akademischen Arbeitskreises Japan. Minikomi 4/2000, 5–11.
‘Warten auf Kōshin – Theorie und Praxis eines japanischen Festes’ (‘The theory and reality of the Kōshin-machi’), Informationen des Akademischen Arbeitskreises Japan. Minikomi 4/1999, 5–9.
‘Angewandte Anthropologie: Schlafend zu Gast bei einer japanischen Familie’ (Understanding sleeping habits during a homestay in a Japanese family), Informationen des Akademischen Arbeitskreises Japan. Minikomi 4/1998, 23–25.
‘Wann schläft Japan? Zur Kultur des Schlafens außerhalb der Schlafstatt’ (‘On the culture of sleep outside the sleeping place’), Peter Pörtner and Josef Holzapfel (eds) and Ulrich Apel: Referate des 10. Deutschprachigen Japanologentages vom 9. bis 12. October 1996 in München, CD-ROM, Munich: Iudicium 1998, 240–245.
‘Nihonjin no nemuri no jikan sokutei’ (‘Measuring sleeping time of the Japanese’), in Keihanna (ed.) Keihanna marason semin: Ningen, seibutsu, jikan – samazama na jikan o motomete, dai 8 kai kenkyūkai kiroku, Kyōto 1996 (1997), 6–11.
‘Fude oroshi – den Pinsel spitzen’ (‘On the first sexual experience with a prostitute’), Informationen des Akademischen Arbeitskreises Japan. Minikomi 1/2 (1993), 6–7.
‘Japanische Besatzung aus der Sicht eines Indonesiers’ (‘Japanese Occupation as seen through the eyes of an Indonesian’), Informationen des Akademischen Arbeitskreises Japan. Minikomi 1/2 (1993), 5–6.
Book reviews, abstracts in refereed journals, non-academic articles:
/Book review/ ‘Eluned Summers-Bremner: Insomnia. A cultural history (2008)’, Journal of the History of Medicine 2009 (accepted)
‘Komplexes einfach zu präsentieren zwingt zum genauen Denken’, Heureka! 1/2007. 15.
/Book review/ ‘Simon Williams: Sleep and society. Sociological ventures into the (un)known’, Sociological Inquiry 76/4 (2006), 528–529.
with Steve Kroll-Smith ‘Normalizing the workplace nap: blurring the boundaries between public and private space and time’, Journal of Sleep Research 15 (Suppl.1), 3.
‘Getting smart by napping in class: making sense of Japanese high school students’ sleep patterns’, Journal of Sleep Research 15 (Suppl. 1), 3-4.
Summary Notes: JAWS Career Development Forum’, JAWS Newsletter 2006.
with Pia Vogler: ‘Translating academic research to the public,’ Anthropology News (Newsletter of the American Anthropological Association), March 2003, 22–23.
with Judith Brandner: ‘Media Work for Students of Japanese Studies,’ IIAS Newsletter 29, 2002, 26.
‘Gedai Nihon no nemuri’ (‘Sleep in Contemporary Japan’), Keihanna (ed.) The Sundial Report, No. 30, 15 April 1996, 1.
