Office address
Department of Anthropology
Boston University
232 Bay State Road
Boston, MA 02215
tel: 617-353-5016
fax: 617-353-2610
Education
Harvard University, Ph.D., 1980, Sociology
Harvard University, A.M., 1966, Comparative Literature
Harvard University, A.B., 1963, cum laude in Anthropology/Japanese Studies
Positions Held (partial list)
Professor, Department of Anthropology, Boston University, Sept. 1987-present.
Visting Professor, Kyoto Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto, Japan, 2002-2003.
Visiting Professor, Education Foundations and Asian Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Summer 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001.
Academic Director and Study Tour Leader 1995-1997: U.S.-Japan Foundation Study project for K-12 teachers, Boston and Japan.
Visting Professor, Department of Sociology, Harvard University 1994-1995.
Visting Researcher, National Institute of Multimedia Education, Chiba, Japan, Sept. 1990-March 1991.
Research Associate, Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Stidies, Harvard University, 1981-present.
Faculty Affiliate, U.S.-Japan Program, Harvard University, 1990-present.
Director of International Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education, July 1985-September 1987.
Director, Project on Human Potential, Harvard Graduate School of Education, December 1981-September 1984.
Administrator and Head Tutor, East Asian Studies, Harvard University 1977-1981; 1984-1987.
PUBLICATIONS
Books (partial list)
Perfectly Japanese: Making Families in an Era of Upheaval, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
Comparing Cultures: Readings on Contemporary Japan for American Writers, Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press, 1995.
The Material Child: Coming of Age in Japan and America, New York: Free
Press, 1993.
Also in Japanese, Dobunshoin Press, Tokyo, 1993.
Paperback, University of California Press, 1994.
Challenging Tradition: Women in Japan, New York: Japan Society, 1991. University Press, 1992.
The Japanese Educational Challenge: A Commitment to Children, New York: Free Press, 1987, and Tokyo: Kodansha; 1988. Also in Japanese: Shueisha, 1992.
Human Conditions: The Cultural Basis for Educational Development, with Robert A. LeVine, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986.
The Cultural Transition: Human Experience and Social Transformation in Japan and the Third World, co-edited with Susan Pollak, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986.
Noodles Galore, New York: Basic Books, 1976.
Cooking for Crowds, New York: Basic Books, 1974.
Chapters in Books (partial list)
"Taking Note of Teen Culture in Japan: Dear Diary, Dear Fieldworker" in Fieldwork in Japan, editors, Theodore Bestor, Patricia Steinhoff and Victoria Lyon Bestor, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2003.
"Tastemaps and Trendqueens: How Young Women Learn to Eat in Japan" in Theodore and Victoria Lyon Bestor, editors, Cuisine, Consumption and Culture: Food in Contemporary Japan, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, forthcoming.
"Ladies who Lunch: Young Women and the Domestic Fallacy in Japan" in Asian Food: The Global and the Local, Katarzyna Cwiertka and Boudewijn Walraven, eds., London: Curzon Press, 2001.
"Social Change, Family and the Child in Contemporary Japan" in Robert A. LeVine and Hidetada Shimizu, Japanese Frames of Mind, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Introduction, Comparison, Competition, or Contemplation? The Uses and Abuses of Japanese Educational Data in the American Research Context, edited by Gerald LeTendre, in press, 1997.
"Rethinking Japan's 'New' Middle Class," in Classic Studies of Japanese Human Development: Retrospects and Prospects, eds. David and Barbara Shwalb, Guilford Press, 1996.
"The Marketing of Adolescence in Japan: Buying and Dreaming," in Women, Media and Consumption in Japan, eds. Brian Moeran and Lise Skov, London: Curzon Press, 1995.
"Virtual Friendship: The New Media and the Material Child," in Media of the Twentieth Century, Tokyo; Justsystem, 1995.
"Japanese Education," in Japanese Studies Across the Curriculum, ed. by Robert Rann, Madonna University, Livonia, Michigan, 1993.
"Le Systeme educatif Japonais," in L'Education en Entreprise: Contre le Chomage des Jeunes eds. François Dalle and Jean Bounine, Paris: Editions Odile Jacob, 1993.
"Is a College Student a 'Teenager'?: Adolescence in Higher Education in Japan and the United States," in Culture and Higher Education, Working Papers, Research and Development Division, National Institute of Multimedia Education, Chiba, Japan, 1992.
"The Social Transformation of Childhood," (with Robert A. LeVine) in Arlene and Jerome Skolnick, Family in Transition, New York: Harper Collins, 1992, pp. 308-309.
"Global Japan: Internationalism in the Intimate Community" in On Community, ed. Leroy S. Rouner, Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1991.
"American Secondary School Education from a Japanese Perspective," in Kitamura Kazuyuki, ed., USAGuide 7: Education, Tokyo: Kobundo, 1991. (in Japanese)
"How They Learn: Cultural Values and Education in Japan," in Roots of Japanese Behavior, The East West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii: 1990.
"Learning in Japan: Community and Competition," in Japan and America: A Relationship that will Shape the World, Bernard R. Cooper, editor, Morgantown, West Virginia: West Virginia University, 1989.
"Revolution in Parenthood: Childhood and the Family in Social Transformation," in Parenting Across the Life Span: Biosocial Dimensions, editors: Jane B. Lancaster, Jeanne Altmann, Alice S. Rossi and Lonnie R. Sherrod, Social Science Research Souncil. (with Robert A. LeVine) 1987.
"Nihonjinron: Notes on Japanese Identity and Internationalization" in The New Nihonjinron (Japanese national consciousness), Tokyo: Yomiuri Shimbun, 1986.
"What is an Ii Ko?" with Robert A. LeVine, in H. Azuma, H. Stevenson, and K. Hakuta, Child Development in Japan, New York: Freeman, 1985.
"American Working Mothers and their Children," in Hataraku Hahaoya no Jidai (The Age of Working Mothers,) edited by Sumiko Iwao and Meiko Sugiyama, Tokyo: NHK, 1984.
"Paradoxes of Career and Motherhood: Cross-cultural Perspectives on the Tatemae/honne of Working Mothers," in Proceedings of the 1983 Symposium on Women: Women and Work, International group for the Study of Women, Tokyo, 1983.
"The Social and Economic Context of the Overseas-Educated Japanese Woman," in International Women Students: Perspectives for the '80s, ed. Leslie Row and Steven Sjoberg, Boston, 1981.
Articles (partial list)
Gastronomica (University of California Press) several articles: "Evacuation Day" (Summer 2003); "Coffee in Cambodia" (Fall 2003) and "Feeding Your Face: Food Fans of Sumo" (Winter 2003-4) "Astro-wraps or how the Chinese are winning the space race" (Summer 2004); Que Sabroso! (Winter 2005)
Newsweek Japan, signed opinion column, "On Japan", appears every five weeks.
Attache Magazine, USAirways, stories approx every three months
Navigator, Holiday Inn, various stories May 2000 ff.
Entry in Oxford Encyclopedia of Food, "Japanese Food"
Entries in Encyclopedia of Women and Work, Japanese Women: An Historical Overview and Japanese Women: Family, Education and Workplace, 1996.
"Women, Food and Identity Construction: Role Attenuation and Elaboration in Japan," in Asies, (Paris, University of Paris, Sorbonne) Summer 1995.
"An Approach to the Evaluation of Teaching and Learning in Japanese Distance Development, in Media and Technology for Human Resource Development, Vol. 6, No. 1, October, 1993.
"Home Truths: Women and Social Change in Japan, "Daedalus, Oct. 1992.
"The Material Child," extract, in World Monitor, March 1993.
"Higher Education: A Comparative Examination," in Thought and Action, National Education Association, Fall 1991.
"Tokyo Teens," World Monitor, March 1993, Vol. 6, No.3., pp. 42-46.
"The Complicated Issue of Going Home," in Christian Science Monitor, Dec. 7, 1992, p.10.
"Learning in Japan: Community and Competition," in Japan and America: A Relationship that will Shape the World, Bernard R. Cooper, editor, Morgantown, West Virginia: West Virginia University, 1989.
"Learning and Working in Japan," in Business Horizons, vol.32, no. 2, March-April, 1989.
"Do They Pass the Test? Unofficial Education in Japan," in Look Japan, vol.33, no. 381, December 1987, pp. 9-10.
"The Virtue of Japanese Mothers: Cultural Definitions of Women's Lives," in Daedalus, vol. 116, no. 3, Summer 1987, pp. 149-163.
"Japanese Education: How Do They Do It?" The Public Interest, Summer 1984, vol.76.
PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS (partial list)
Lecture, "Singing the Brews: Coffee in the Post-Colonial World" at Northeast Regional Conference on the Social Studies, March 14, 2005.
Lecture, "Development from the Ground Up: Coffee for Schools in Rural Cambodia" Asia Center, Harvard University, December 3, 2004.
Lecture: "Café Society in Japan, or, Why Starbucks May Not Prevail" University of California, Berkeley, Institute for East Asian Studies, November 8, 2004.
Lecture, "Why Starbucks Won't Last: Coffee and Social Spaces in Urban Japan" University of Virginia, Charlottesville, March 26, 2004.
Lecture, "Café Society in Japan" Brandeis University, March 16, 2004.
Lecture Series, "Merry White Public Lecture Series" including, "Revisiting Returnees: From Kokusaika to Gurobarisumu" "Café Society in Japan" and "Families and Schooling in Post-Bubble Japan", International Christian University, Tokyo, February 9 and 10, 2004.
Lecture and workshop, "Social Change and Japan's New Commonsense" Japan Society of New York, December 13, 2003.
Lecture, "Coffee Cultures: Grounded Social History in Japan" African American Studies Program of Boston University, October 23, 2003.
Lecture, "Coffee Cultures: Grounded Social History in Japan", Tenth International Conference of the European Association for Japanese Studies, August 27-30, Warsaw University, Warsaw, Poland.
Lecture, with Richard Dyck, "Learning in Institutions" University of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, July 11, 2003.
Discussant, Asian Studies Conference, Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan, July 2003.
Lectures and Workshop Leader, National Faculty Development Institute, "Incorporating Japanese Studies into the Undergraduate Curriculum," San Diego State University, San Diego, California, June 9-11, 2003.
Lecture, "Moveable Feasts: Gender, Authenticity and Subversion in a Plate of Pasta", Japan Anthropology Workshop, Yale University, May 11, 2002.
Lecture, "Families and their Discontents: Home(sic) in Japan", Resource Session Fulbright Memorial fund, Boston, April 20, 2002.
Lecture, "Global Gelato, or Do You Know Where Your Ice Cream has Been?" Panel: The Science of Ice Cream, AAAS Annual Meeting, February 16, 2002, Boston Massachusetts.
Presentation, "Talkin'Bout Love: Affiliation and Responsibility among Young Adults in Japan", Symposium on The Ways Some Japanese Live Now: Three Problematic Age Groups, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, January 11-13, 2002.
Lecture, "It's Not Japanese Miso Soup; It's Grandma's!: Food and Identity Among Japanese Americans", The Davies Forum, Center for the Pacific Rim, University of San Francisco, October 1, 2001 [NOTE: the above lecture, in different forms, was also delivered at The Mansfield Freeman Center for East Asian Studies, Wesleyan College, November 28, 2001 and at The Japan Society of Boston's series on soy, at Harvard University November 14, 2001.]
Lecture, "Blending the Tastes of Home: Japanese-American Foodways" University of Leiden and Kikkoman Institute for International Food Culture, Leiden, Netherlands, June 20, 2001.
Lecture, "Yearning for Italy, Confirming Japan: New Tourisms as Identity Projects" Harvard University, Program on US-Japan Relations, April 10, 2001.
Lecture, "Italian Food as Japanese Identity Project", Boston University Anthropology Graduate Lunch Series, October 20, 2000.
Lecture, "Aoyama Italiano: Itameshi and a Yearning for Home in Globalizing Japan", Annual meeting, Association for Asian Studies, March 24, 2001, Chicago.
Lecture, "Society and Culture" Japan: Year in Review, The Japan Society of Northern California, February 1, 2001.
Lecture, "Sex, Identity and the Marketing of the Japanese Teen", Center for East Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, April 16, 1999.
Lecture Series, "Dual Culture Children: Issues of Race, Culture and Globalization", Japan America Societies of New Mexico, Texas and Arizona, Houston , Dallas, Phoenix and Albuquerque, February 1999.
Lecture, "Confessions of a Closet Caterer: My Secret Life in Food", Sakamaki Memorial Lecture, University of Hawaii at Manoa, July 1998.
Lecture, "Japanese Women as a National Security Issue: Japan's Demographic Crisis", Robert Alden Ellsworth Annual Lecture, Johnson State College, Johnson, Vt. April 14, 1998.
Lecture, "Treats and Treatments: Food and Identity Among Japanese Women" Boston University: Women's Studies Program Special Lecture, February 3, 1998.
Lecture, "Japanese Society Today" First General Assembly of Japan-America Societies in New England, Boston, November 8, 1997.
Lecture, "Education Reform: Views from Japan and the United States," Japan External Trade Organization, New York, May 1, 1997.
Lecture, "Not Your Usual Problem: Population Issues and Social Change in Japan," University of Texas at Austin, April 14, 1997.
Lecture, "Education and Social Change In Japan." Trinity University, San Antonio, April 10, 1997.
"Values, Identity and Social Change in Japan: A Grounded Discussion," seminar on Models of Public Philosophy, East and West, Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, New York, November 13, 1996.
"Myths and Realities: Teenage Japan." Keynote address at "Japan Today: Images and Realities." Conference, Concord, New Hampshire, October 28, 1996.
"Continuity and Change in Asia: Beyond the Tradition/Modernity Dichotomy," Keynote Address, Asia Society, New York, April 18, 1996.
"Population Issues and Social Change in Japan," Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, February 29, 1996.
"Adolescence and Social Change in Japan."
"Population Issues and the Construction of Women's Power in Japan,"
lectures at Colorado College, Colorado Springs, January 20-21, 1996.
"Materialism and Adolescence in Japan," Institute for Social Engineering, Tokyo, July 7, 1993.
"Family and Social Change in Japan and America, " National Institute for Research Advancement, Tokyo, July 6, 1993.
"Adolescence in Japan and America" (in Japanese), Tokyu Cultural Center, Tokyo, June 25, 1993.
"Adolescent Sexuality in Japan," Japan Anthropology Workshop, Banff, Alberta, Canada, April 6, 1993.
"The Material Child: Adolescence in Japan," Mansfield Freeman Center for East Asian Studies, Wesleyan College, Middletown, CT., September 24, 1992.
"The Material Child: The Social Construction of Adolescence in Japan," School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, May 27, 1992.
"Japan's Education: Learning at Home and at School," Harvard Alumni College, April 12, 1992.
"The Education Gap: America's and Japan's Education Systems in a Competitive Global Economy," (with Thomas Rohlen), The Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington, D.C., March 23, 1992.
"Growing Up in Modern Japan," New Hampshire Council on World Affairs, Japan Program, St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire, February 12, 1991.
"Considerations of Japanese Education: Asian Views," University of Hong Kong, Department of Education, November 10, 1991.
"Early Childhood and Elementary Education in Japan and the United States: What Can We Learn From Each Other?" Pacific Rim Education Forum, University of San Francisco, October 31, 1991.
"Rethinking the Life Course: Adolescence and Social Change in Japan," Japan Studies Association of Australia, Seventh National Conference, July 11-13, 1991, Canberra.
"Internationalization and the Returnee Child," Ministry of Education, Tokyo, January 10, 1991.
"Basic Education and Employment Patterns in Japan," International Conference on Education and Employment, Club de Poitiers, Futuroscope, Poitiers, France, November 28 and 29, 1992.
Consultancies (partial list)
Co-editor, special issue, Gastronomica (on Julia Child) (in process).
Consultant to University of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, on future collaborative exchange programs with Boston University, July 2003-
Advisor, HaruFest, Japan Society of Boston, Spring 2002.
Consultant and Advisory Board Member, Traveling Exhibition on contemporary Japan, Children's Museum Boston and Capitol Children's Museum Washington D.C. 2002-2003.
Advisor, Peabody Essex Museum Exhibition, "Exhibiting Geisha" planned for 2004.
Consultant, Japanese Families Project, The Children's Museum, Boston, 2000-2002.
Consultant, Wired, "Cuteness Sells in Japan" July 1999.
Consultant, Rolling Stone Online, preparation and coverage, Mt. Fuji Rock Festival, Japan, April-July 1997.
Advisor and Consultant to Tanabata Project, multimedia CD-ROM teaching programs on Japanese language and culture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1995-present.
Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Relations, Board of Trustees, May 1994-present.
Bernard van Leer Foundation, The Hague, Netherlands, 1992-present. Okinawa, Japan: Consultant and Evaluator, Community Center Project (Bunko), 1994-present.
The Hague: Consultant and Director, Workshop on Chinese Childrearing and Family, March 1995.
Keimei International Education Foundation, Board of Advisors, 1978-present.
Massachusetts Committee on Educational Telecommunications, consultant on-camera discussant, 1993-present.
Boston Filmmakers Collaborative, Board of Directors, 1989-present.
Cambridge Arts Council, Board Member, 1999-present.
Other Professional Participation
Director, Study Group on Urbanism and Popular Culture in Japan, area-wide program for graduate students and faculty, funded by E.O. Reischauer Institute for Japanese Studies, September 2003-
Council on Global Partnership, Japan Foundation, New York. Grant Proposal Reviewer, 1999---
Fulbright Commission, Selecton Committee, Grants 1997, 1998.
Program and Planning Committtees, International Conference on Asian Studies, Leiden Netherlands. 1998.
International Group for the Study of Women, 1994 Tokyo Symposium on Women, Moderator and Plenary Panelist, Saitama, Japan, August 4-6, 1995.
Advisor, Harvard Project on Schooling and Children, 1995-present.
The Children's Museum, Boston. Advisor to teachers' training programs, 1990-present.
Harvard College Admissions Board, interviewing and consulting, Boston Latin School, January-February 1995-present.
Grants and Fellowships(partial listing)
Kikkoman Institute for International Food Culture, 2000-2001, Grant for study of Japanese American Foodways, research conducted at Japanese American National Museum and Library, Los Angeles.
Ministry of Education, Japan. Research Grant. "Globalization and Japan". Fieldwork site, Bologna, Italy, 1997-1999.
Northeast Asia Council Grant, Association for Asian Studies. Research Project on Population Issues in Japan, June 1993.
American Council of Learned Societies, Research grant for Study of Social Construction of Adolescence in Japan, 1990-1991.
Social Sciences Research Center, Research Grant for the Study of Cultural Concepts of Adolescence in Japan, May 1988-January 1989.
Non-Profit Activity
With American Assistance to Cambodia and Japan Relief for Cambodia, established non-profit coffee export trade between Ratanakiri Province, Cambodia and Japan, proceeds to build elementary schools and clinics. July 2003-
Coffee import, roasting and distribution in the United States for Cambodian relief, launched February 2004. One of the blends is named for me, "Corky's Blend."