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BILL SEWELL

Department of History

Saint Mary's University

923 Robie Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 3C3

(902) 420-5755, fax: (902) 420-5141

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Modern Japanese History

• Modern Chinese History

• Northeast Asia (including northeastern China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, and eastern Siberia)

• Urban History

• History of Imperialism

• Cultural History

TEACHING INTERESTS

• East Asian History (including China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Siberia, and Vietnam)

• Urban History

ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT

• Saint Mary's University (Halifax, Nova Scotia):  Associate Professor (September 2004 to present), Assistant Professor (September 2000 - September 2004); Director, Confucius Institute (2011 to present); Chair, Department of History (2008 to 2010); Acting Chair, Department of History (2007-8); Acting Coordinator, Asian Studies Interdisciplinary Program (2008-09)

• Dalhousie University (Halifax, Nova Scotia), Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Graduate Studies (2007 to present)

• International Research Center for Japanese History (Kyoto): Visiting Research Scholar (September 2002 - June 2003)

• University of British Columbia (Vancouver, British Columbia): Sessional Instructor (September 1999 - August 2000)

• Lakeland College Japan (Tokyo): Adjunct Professor (September 1996 - April 1998)

• University College of the Fraser Valley (Abbotsford, British Columbia): Sessional Lecturer (June 1993 - December 1994)

ACADEMIC AWARDS

• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), 2004-06

• Saint Mary's University (internal grants)

• University of British Columbia (internal grants and bursaries)

• Japan Association for International Education (Nihon Kokusai Kyôiku Kyôkai), 1997-98

ACADEMIC AFFILIATIONS

• List Editor, H-NEAsia (http://www.h-net.org/~neasia/) (online beginning September 2004)

• Secretary-Treasurer, Japan Studies Association of Canada (JSAC), October 2004-09 (Acting Secretary-Treasurer, 2001-02, 2004-05), Member-at-Large 2009 to the present, JSAC 2011 Conference Organizer [http://buna.arts.yorku.ca/jsac/]

• Member-at-Large, East Asia Council Executive Committee (Canadian Asian Studies Association [CASA]), 2007 to 2011 [http://canadianasianstudies.concordia.ca/]

• Member:  Association of Asian Studies, Canadian Asian Studies Association, Japan Studies Association of Canada, Northeast Asia Research Centre (at Acadia University) [http://history.acadiau.ca/NEARC/Nearc.htm]
  

EDUCATION

• Ph.D., Modern Japanese History (2000), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
  Dissertation Title: "Japanese Imperialism and Civic Construction in Manchuria: Changchun, 1905-1945" (available at Circle UBC's Information Repository here)

• M.A., Modern Chinese History (1987), University of California, Davis, USA
  Thesis Title: "The Military in Chinese Society, 1796-1936"

• B.S., History, Linguistics, Psychology (1983), University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA

PUBLICATIONS

• Constructing Empire: The Japanese Experience in Changchun, 1905-1945 (monograph in preparation)

• "Beans to Banners:  Changchun's Evolving Prewar Architecture" (book chapter in submission)

• "Public Health Concerns in a Manchurian Treaty Port" (article in submission)

• "Manshuukoku kokuto 'Shinkyou' no datsukouchiku" (Manchukuo's "New Capital" in Contemporary Perspectives), in Ezra Vogel and Hirano Ken'ichirou, eds., Nitchuu sensouki Chuugoku no shakai to bunka (Chinese Society and Culture during the Sino-Japanese War), Tokyo: Keio University Press, 2010, pp. 291-327

• "Feng Yuxiang," "Harriman Affair," "Manchuria," "South Manchuria Railway," and "Warlordism," in Yuwu Song, ed., Encyclopedia of Chinese-American Relations, McFarland & Company, 2006, pp. 105-6, 128-9, 185-6, 263-4, 306-7

• "Crisis, War, and Culture: The Global Significance of Japanese National Cultures," in Joseph F. Kess and Helen Landsowne, eds., Why Japan Matters!, Victoria: Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives, 2005, vol. 1, pp. 98-108

• "Reconsidering the Modern in Japanese History: Modernity in the Service of the Prewar Japanese Empire," Japan Review 16 (2004), pp. 213-58 (available at: http://shinku.nichibun.ac.jp/jpub/pdf/jr/IJ1607.pdf)

• "Kyuu Manshuu ni okeru senzen Nihon no machizukuri katsudou" (Prewar Japanese City Making in Manchuria), Nichibunken Foramu (Nichibunken Forum) 160 (December 2003), 30 pp. (http://www.nichibun.ac.jp/graphicversion/dbase/forum/text/fn160.html)

• "Postwar Japan and Manchuria," in David W. Edgington, ed., Japan at the Millennium: Joining Past and Future, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2003, pp. 97-119

• "Railway Outpost and Puppet Capital: Urban Expressions of Japanese Imperialism in Changchun, 1905-1945," in Gregory Blue, Martin Bunton, and Ralph Crozier, eds., Colonialism and the Modern World: Selected Studies, Armonk, NY: ME Sharpe, 2002, pp. 283-98

PAPERS PRESENTED

• "Beans to Banners:  Changchun's Evolving Prewar Architecture," From Harbin to Hanoi: Colonial Built Environment, 1840-1940, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (4-5 June 2010)

• "Japanese Society in a Manchurian Treaty Port," Japan Studies Association of Canada (JSAC), Lethbridge, Alberta (4 October 2009)

• "Asia 101: The Texts," Canadian Asian Studies Association (CASA), University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario (15 November 2008)

• "The Survey Course:  Tradition and Transformation," Japan Studies Association of Canada (JSAC), University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario (3 October 2008)

• "Historicizing the Manchurian Incident," Canadian Asian Studies Association (CASA), La Malbaie, Québec (22 November 2007)

• "Manufacturing Japan in Manchuria," Japan Studies Association of Canada (JSAC), Toronto, Ontario (17 August 2007)

• "Reorienting the Manchurian Incident," Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, Boston, MA (24 March 2007)

• "Manchukuo's 'New Capital' in Contemporary Perspectives," The Third International Conference on Chinese-Japanese Relations during the Sino-Japanese War, Hakone, Japan (25 November 2006)

• "Between Rocks and a Hard Place: Missionaries and Empires in Prewar Manchuria," Japan Studies Association of Canada (JSAC), Kamloops, British Columbia (13 October 2006)

• "Civilizational and Identity 'Clashes' in Manchuria during the Long Twentieth Century," Joint conference of the East Asian Committee of the Canadian Asian Studies Association (CASA) and the Japan Studies Association of Canada (JSAC), Edmonton, Alberta (1 October 2005)

• "Crisis, War, and Culture: The Global Significance of Japanese National Cultures," Japan Studies Association of Canada (JSAC), Victoria, British Columbia (16 October 2004)

• "Reinventing Imperialism: Morality in Japanese Manchuria," Canadian Asian Studies Association (CASA), Calgary, Alberta (9 October 2004)

• "The M-Word Strikes Back: Japan's Prewar Empire, Current Dilemmas, and the Allure of the Modern," Japan Studies Association of Canada (JSAC), McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario (17 October 2003)

• "Public Health Concerns in a Manchurian Treaty Port," presented at a workshop entitled "Foreign Fevers and Colonial Cures: Disease and Medicine in the British, French and Japanese Empires," at Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia (23 August 2003)

• "Kyuu Manshuu ni okeru senzen Nihon no machizukuri katsudou" (Prewar Japanese City Making in Manchuria), International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken) and Japan Foundation, Kyoto, Japan (8 April 2003)

• "Senzen Nihon teikokushugi no toshi hyougen" (Urban Expressions of Prewar Japanese Imperialism), presented to the Nichibunken Cooperative Research Group seeking "A Comprehensive Study of the Culture of Modern Northeast China (the Former Manchuria)", International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken), Kyoto, Japan (21 December 2002)

• "Modernity at Work: Making Theory Concrete in Colonial Manchuria," Nichibunken Evening Seminar, International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto, Japan (2 November 2002)

• "A Beacon to the World: The Modernist National Project in Changchun," Association for Asian Studies, San Diego, California (11 March 2000)

• "Railway Outpost and Puppet Capital: Urban Expressions of Japanese Imperialism in Changchun, 1905-1945," World History Association International Conference, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia (25 June 1999) and Asian Studies on the Pacific Coast (ASPAC), San Diego State University, San Diego, California (18 June 1999)

• "Japanese Imperialism and Civic Construction in Manchuria, 1905-1945," New York Conference on Asian Studies (NYCAS), State University of New York at New Paltz, New Paltz, New York (17 October 1998)

• "Japanese Imperialism, Chinese Development, and Notions of Civic Progress in Northeast China," Asian Studies on the Pacific Coast (ASPAC), Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington (20 June 1998)

• "Japanese Imperialism and Manchukuo’s Imperial Capital," Ph.D. Kenkyukai, International House of Japan, Tokyo, Japan (17 February 1998)

• "Asia, Africa, and 'Involution'," Qualicum Conference, Qualicum, British Columbia, Canada (30 January 1994)

• "Grappling with the Plunge: Kousaka Masaaki and the 1930s World Historical Crisis," Qualicum Conference, Qualicum, British Columbia, Canada (31 January 1993)

BOOK REVIEWS

• More than forty book reviews published in Asian Affairs: An American Review, The Canadian Journal of History, Historical Geography, Pacific Affairs, Progress in Development Studies, and The University of Toronto Quarterly, as well as on H-Net through H-HistGeog, H-Japan, and H-US-Japan (available at: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/).