Dr. Karen Wigen

Biography

Kären Wigen teaches Japanese history and history cartography at Stanford University. She earned her doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley. Her book, 'Making Japanese Periphery, 1750-1920' (1995), mapped the economic transformation of southern Nagano Prefecture during the heyday of the silk industry. In 'Malleable Map: Geographies of Restoration in Central Japan, 1600-1912' (2010), Wigen explored the roles of cartography, chorography, and regionalism in the making of modern Shinano. Her abiding interest in world history led her to co-author 'Myth of Continents' (1997) with Martin Lewis and co-direct the 'Oceans Connect' project at Duke University. She introduced a forum on oceans history for the American Historical Review and co-edited 'Seascapes: Maritime Histories, Littoral Cultures, Transoceanic Exchanges' (2007) with Jerry Bentley and Renate Bridenthal. Currently, she is collaborating on 'Cartographic Japan: History of Maps' with co-editors Sugimoto Fumiko and Cary Karacas, which is forthcoming from the University of Chicago Press in 2016.

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