Mikael S. Adolphson

Brought up in Kalmar, Sweden, I have been a historian as long as I can remember. After graduating from high school in the late (and joyful) 1970s, I went to Lund's University, where I graduated with a B.A. in History, Museum and Cultural Studies in 1984, after which I spent two years studying Japanese at Stockholm University. In 1986, I received a scholarship from the Japanese Education Ministry to study in Kyoto and Osaka. In 1989, I entered Stanford University's Ph.D. program with Jeff Mass as my mentor. Returning to Kyoto University in the spring of 1992 for dissertation research, I also worked for the Japan Volleyball Association as an interpreter. My first academic appointment was at the University of Oklahoma from 1995 to 1999, after which I moved to Harvard University. In 2008 I moved to the University of Alberta as Professor of Japanese Cultural Studies, where I served as chair and associate dean. I am currently Keidanren Professor of Japanese Studies at Cambridge.