Dr. David Howell

Biography

David Howell is the Robert K. Dale J. Weary Professor of Japanese History at Harvard University and serves as the Acting Director of the Program on US-Japan Relations at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. He received his B.A. from the University of Hawai’i Hilo and his Ph.D. in History from Princeton University. Prior to joining Harvard's faculty in 2010, he taught at the University of Texas at Austin and Princeton University. Howell's research primarily focuses on the social history of Japan during the Tokugawa (1603–1868) and Meiji (1868–1912) periods. His work examines how changing political and economic institutions affected the lives and livelihoods of ordinary people in the nineteenth century. He has authored influential works, including 'Capitalism, Economy, Society, State: The Japanese Fishery' (1995) and 'Geographies of Identity in Nineteenth-Century Japan' (2005), along with numerous articles. Currently, he is engaged in projects that include a short survey of the Meiji Restoration period and the history of human waste and garbage in cities during the Tokugawa and Meiji eras. He is also a co-editor of the new edition of the Cambridge History of Japan, scheduled for publication in 2020.

Research Interests

Experience