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Kate McDonald

Current Courses

Winter 2013 (current)


Department Fields

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Topic for 187DR (W13)
Recent studies into the politics of memory, culture, and nation in modern Japan have completely upset what we thought we knew about the Japanese Empire. What does it mean for the study of Japanese imperialism and for the study of Japan today?

Enrolling in 187DR (W13)
If you are having trouble enrolling in 187DR because of a prerequisite issue, please contact me for an add code.

Modern Japan


Assistant Professor
Ph.D., University of California San Diego, 2011

Office: HSSB 4221
Winter 2013 Hours: Wed., 3-5pm

I am an historian of modern Japan, travel, and technology. The question that gets me up in the morning is this: how do we know what we think we know? How and why does that change? My current approach to this general problem has brought me to question the interaction of concepts of difference with technologies of mobility and systems of knowledge in the Japanese Empire. I teach undergraduate and graduate courses in Japanese history, historiography of the so-called "non-West," and the study of imperialism.

Research and Teaching Interests

  • Travel and the Politics of Place
  • Mobility and History
  • Transportation and Transport History
    Trains! Rickshaws! Bicycles!
  • The Historiography of Empire

Current Projects

  • Asymmetrical Integration: Railroads, Cooperation, and Japanese Imperialism in Manchuria, 1905-1917
    Although we tend to focus on competing railway empires, this article argues that railway empires cooperated as well. I focus on the integration of railways in Manchuria and how the SMR shaped the development of the network to its own advantage.
  • A Sight to be Seen: Travel and the Politics of Place in Imperial Japan
    I investigate the narrative strategies that Japanese travelers used to translate brief tourist experiences in Korea, Manchuria, and Taiwan into seemingly apolitical accounts of geography and community.
  • G.I. Tours: The Rebirth of Japan's Foreign Tourism Industry under U.S. Occupation, 1945-1952
    article in progress

Undergraduate and Graduate Courses

  • HIST 187B: Modern Japan
  • HIST 187C: Recent Japan
  • HIST 87: Japanese History through Art and Literature
  • HIST 187P: Proseminar in Japanese History
  • HIST 201AS: Advanced Historical Literature (Asia)
    Topics: "The Historiography of Non-Western Modernity" and "Issues in the Historiography of Travel Writing and Representation"

Honors and Professional Activities

  • American Historical Association
    Member
  • Association for Asian Studies
    Member
  • Society for the History of Technology
    Member

Selected Awards

  • Fulbright (Japan-U.S. Educational Commission)
    2008-2009
  • UC Pacific Rim Advanced Graduate Research Fellowship
    2008-2009