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Northern Illinois University

Department of History

E. Taylor Atkins
Director of Undergraduate Studies and Associate Professor

Fields of Study: Asia (Japan & Korea), Colonial Empires, Cultural/Intellectual, Global, Memory and Commemoration

E-mail: etatkins@niu.edu
Phone: 815-753-6699
Office: Zulauf 724

Education: Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1997

Current Research: Primitive Selves: Koreana in the Japanese Colonial Gaze, 1910-45 -- A study of Japanese colonial policies toward Korean performing arts and folk culture and legacies for cultural preservation in postcolonial Korea; and Bahá'í Responses to Colonialism --A global study of responses by adherents of the Bahá'í Faith to colonialism and decolonization.

Major/Recent Publications:

Books

  • (Editor) Jazz Planet: Transnational Studies of the "Sound of Surprise". Jackson: University Press of Mississippi 2003.
  • Blue Nippon: Authenticating Jazz in Japan. Durham: Duke UP 2001.

Articles/Book Chapters

  • "The Dual Career of 'Arirang': The Korean Resistance Anthem That Became a Japanese Pop Hit." Journal of Asian Studies 66.3 (August 2007): 645-687 
  • "Popular Culture." In William Tsutsui, ed., A Companion to Japanese History. Blackwell Companions to World History. Malden, MA, & Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007. 460-76.
  • "Sacred Swing: The Sacralization of Jazz in the American Bahá'í Community." American Music 24.4 (Winter 2006): 383-420.
  • "Inventing Jazztowns and Internationalizing Local Identities in Japan." In Jeffrey E. Hanes and Hidetoshi Yamaji, eds., Image and Identity: Rethinking Japanese Cultural History. Modern Economics and Business Series No. 1. Kobe: The Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration, Kobe University, 2004. 249-62.
  • "20th Century Japan: Music." In Andrew E. Kersted, ed. (Joyce E. Salisbury, general ed.), The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Daily Life: A Tour Through History from Ancient to Modern Times, Vol. 6. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2004.

Teaching Interests: Most of my teaching has focused on general education surveys in modern Asian and world history, and a three-semester, 300-level sequence in Japanese history. I very much enjoy stretching into new territory, challenging myself and my students to think globally and comparatively. In addition to developing new thematic courses on the Korean War, the Japanese empire, and Asian women's history, I enjoy teaching methodological courses, such as the seminar in Oral History, and the new HIST 391 Historical Methods, which will be a required course for the incoming class of 2007-08. At the graduate level, I have taught reading seminars in Japanese history and modern colonial empires, and will soon teach a research seminar on using popular culture in historical investigation.

Courses Taught:

  • HIST 141 Asia Since 1500
  • HIST 171 The World Since 1500
  • HIST 346 Women in Asian History
  • HIST 350 Japan to 1600
  • HIST 351 Japan since 1600
  • HIST 352 Popular Culture in Japan
  • HIST 391 Historical Methods
  • HIST 398 Themes in World History
  • HIST 444 The Japanese Empire
  • HIST 497 Oral History
  • HIST 590 Reading Seminar in Modern Colonialism

Link to CV | Link to Personal Webpage