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Mark Williams

Professor of Japanese Studies
 

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Professor Williams is on leave of absence from September 2011 to August 2014. During this time, he is Vice-President at Akita International University, Japan, and can be contacted at m-b-williams@aiu.ac.jp
Member of Peer Review Panel, Arts and Humanities Research Council
Areas of Expertise
  • Christianity in Japan;
  • Cultural history of Occupation Japan
Other Roles:

BA, MA Oxford; MA, PhD University of California, Berkeley.

Contents

  1. 1 About Professor Mark Williams
  2. 2 Research Interests
  3. 3 Recent Activities
  4. 4 Key Publications and Activities
    1. 4.1 Publications
    2. 4.2 Selected Conferences and Conference Papers
    3. 4.3 Knowledge Transfer
  5. 5 Honorary Posts
  6. 6 PhD Supervision

About Professor Mark Williams

I began my studies of Japan during the course of my BA in Japanese Studies at Oxford - but quickly realised that I still needed to spend more time in Japan.  It was during the time I subsequently spent in Gunma Prefecture as a JET teacher that my interest in Japanese literature was piqued - and I did not take much persuasion to move from there to California to pursue a Ph.D. in postwar Japanese literature.  I moved to Leeds in 1988 as a Lecturer in Japanese, charged with helping to establish Japanese Studies at the university - and still find myself here more than twenty years later!  I became Professor of Japanese Studies in 2004, and am currently serving as Chair of the School of Modern Languages and Cultures.  I have just completed a 4-year term as President of the British Association for Japanese Studies.

Research Interests

Arising out of my Ph.D. research on representations of Christianity in postwar Japanese literature, my early publications concentrated on the widely acclaimed author, Endo Shusaku.  I subsequently worked extensively on the works of a range of other Japanese authors of the immediate postwar period and have sought to analyse the significance of these texts from both a literary and socio-historical perspective.  More recently I have been considering the way in which Japanese authors have engaged with the concept of difference/alterity (Representing the Other in Modern Japanese Literature) and how they (and artists of other genres) have dealt with the legacy of the war in East Asia (Imag(in)ing the War in Japan).  I have also translated two novels by Endo Shusaku: Foreign Studies and The Girl I Left Behind.

Recent Activities

I am heavily engaged in activities to preserve the modern foreign languages base in the UK HE system. Much of my time over the past few years has been devoted to ensuring that the research and teaching provision for Modern Languages at Leeds remain buoyant - and this has involved considerable time spent engaged in the national debates surrounding the future of modern languages in the UK more broadly. I accompanied the Vice-Chancellor and International Director on visit to Japan in November 2010; useful visits to various HE institutions, companies plus meetings with govt. officials, foundations, alumni, etc.

At the same time, I have endeavoured to retain my research momentum and have just published a co-edited volume (with David Stahl), Imag(in)ing the War in Japan: Representing and Responding to Trauma in Post-war Japanese Literature and Film. In August 2009, I attended the conference on 'Modernism in Japan' at Otago University, New Zealand.

Key Publications and Activities

Publications

    • Crossing the Deep River: Endō Shūsaku and the Problem of Religious Pluralism’, in K. Doak (ed.) Xavier’s Legacies: Catholicism in Modern Japanese Culture, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, March 2011.
    • 'Shiina Rinzo: A Literary Response to the "Overcoming Modernity" Symposium', M. Williams, in R. Starrs (ed) Modernism in Contemporary Japan, 2011.
    • Imag(in)ing the War in Japan: Representing and Responding to Trauma in Post-war Japanese Literature and Film, M. Williams & D. Stahl, eds, Brill, 2010.
    • 'Writing the traumatized Self: Tenko in the Literature of Shiina Rinzo', in ibid.
    • 'Accuracy or Fidelity? On Translating the Literature of Endo Shusaku', in Bulletin of the British Association for Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language 10, 2009.
    • 'Gendai Nihon bungaku ni okeru "tasha"' (The 'Other' in Modern Japanese Literature), in Exploring Japanese Literary Research from an Overseas Perspective: Beyond Inside and Outside, The National Institute of Japanese Literature, 2006.
    • Representing the Other in Modern Japanese Literature: A Critical Approach, M. Williams & R. Hutchinson (eds.), London: Taylor & Francis/Routledge, 2006.
    • 'Free to Write: Confronting the Present, and the Past, in Shiina Rinzo's Utsukushii onna', in ibid.
    • Endo Shusaku: A Literature of Reconciliation. Routledge, 1999.
    • Japan and Christianity: Impacts and Responses, Breen and Williams (eds.). Macmillan, 1996.
    • Foreign Studies (trans. of Endo Shusaku, Ryugaku), Peter Owen, 1989.
    • The Girl I Left Behind (trans. of Endo Shusaku, Watashi ga suteta onna), 1994.

Recent publications include articles in Japan Forum, Asian Cultural Studies, Christianity and Literature, The Bulletin of SOAS, the Anglo-Japanese History Project, etc.

Selected Conferences and Conference Papers

    • Plenary speaker, '(Re)constituting the Historical Trauma of the War in East Asia: A Literary Response to the "Overcoming Modernity" Symposium', University of Otago, New Zealand, 14 August 2009.
    • Panel Speaker, 'Endo Shusaku: Death and Rebirth beside the Deep River', paper delivered at the conference, 'Xavier's Legacies: Catholicism in Modern Japanese Culture', Georgetown University, Washington DC, 25 November 2006.
    • Panel Speaker, 'Don't Mention the War: Shiina Rinzo and the Missing Years, 1937-45', paper delivered at the Rocky Mountains Modern Language Association annual convention, Tucson, Arizona, 12 October 2006.
    • Plenary Speaker, National Institute for Japanese Literature (2005), Akita International University.
    • Panel speaker, International Association for the History of Religions Conference, Tokyo, 2005
    • Panel Chair, Association of Asian Studies (AAS) conference, 2003, 2008
    • Plenary speaker at international symposia, recently including: Akita International University (2005), Osaka University (2003); Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (2003); Ferris University, Yokohama (2002); Japanese Ministry of Education (2002).

Knowledge Transfer

Participant at round-table event with UK Ambassador to Japan, David Warren, at the Dialogue Society on 26 January 2011

Honorary Posts

  • Member, AHRC Peer Review College.

PhD Supervision

I have supervised over a wide range of topics, including:

  • The use of Anglicisms in Japanese popular culture.
  • The non-fictional writings of Endo Shusaku.
  • The Jesuit missions to Japan and New France: A Comparative Approach.
  • The Role of Spirit healers in Contemporary Japan.
  • The Hidden Christians of Japan.
  • Literature of Occupation Japan.
  • Comparison of the Jesuit missions to Japan and Canada.

Ioannis Gaitanidis graduated in December 2010 (co-supervised with Terry King).

Justyna Kasza 

Guidance on PhDs can be found in the Research Postgraduate pages.