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University of Southern California
University of Southern California
History

Faculty

Joan Piggott

Gordon L. MacDonald Chair in History and Professor of History

Contact Information
E-mail: joanrp@usc.edu
Phone: (213)821-5872
Office: SOS 168

LINKS
Project for Premodern Japan Studies
USC Kambun Workshops
 

Education

  • M.A. East Asian Studies, Stanford University, 1/1972
  • Ph.D. History, Stanford University, 1/1987

Academic Appointment, Affiliation, and Employment History

  • Associate Professor of History, Director of the Cornell East Asia Program Kambun Workshops 1997-2001, Cornell University, 1/1/1995-1/1/2002  
  • Visiting Associate Professor, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, Spring 2001   
  • Assistant Professor of History, Director of the Cornell East Asia Program Kambun Workshops, Cornell University, 1/1/1989-1/1/1995  
  • Assistant Professor of History, University of Miami, 1/1/1987-1/1/1989  
  • Visiting Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1/1/1985-1/1/1987  

Description of Research

Summary Statement of Research Interests
A premier Japan historian, Professor Piggott is an expert on premodern Japan and East Asia. Her specialties include the development of kingship, church-state relations, land tenure, and family in Japan. Her seminal study, The Emergence of Japanese Kingship, combined written records with archaeological evidence to illuminate the reigns of seven Japanese monarchs between the third and eighth centuries. While at Cornell she organized a series of workshops on reading and translating kambun (Sino-Japanese), and those workshops are continuing at USC.
Research Specialties
premodern historical studies: Japan and East Asia
Detailed Statement of Research Interests
I am presently working on a monographic study of Heian (794-1180) kingship, and the urban history of Kyoto. I plan to work on the latter study during my upcoming sabbatic semester. I am also beginning a study of the royal Todaiji temple in Nara, which will contain essays on the temple's history from its founding in the eighth century through the fourteenth century.

Affiliations with Research Centers, Labs, and Other Institutions

  • Meiji University Graduate School, Director for Exchange in Premodern Japan Historical Studies
  • Project for Premodern Japan Studies, Director,http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/history/ppjusc
  • Reischauer Institute, Harvard University, Research Associate
  • USC/Tokyo University Summer Kambun Workshops, Director,http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/history/kambun/

Publications

Book
  • Piggott, J. R., Yoshida, S. (2008). Teishinkoki: The Year 939 in the Journal of Regent Fujiwara no Tadahira. Ithaca, New York: Cornell East Asian Series.
  • Piggott, J. R., Smits, I., Viellard-Baron, M., von Put, I., von Verschuer, C. (2006). Dictionary of Sources of Classical Japan. Paris: College de France.
  • Piggott, J. R., Ko, D., Habousch, J. (2003). Women in Three Premodern Confucian Societies. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
  • Piggott, J. R. (1997). The Emergence of Japanese Kingship, Stanford University Press, 1997. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Book Chapter
  • Piggott, J. R. (2007). Court and Provinces in the Era of Regent Fujiwara no Tadahira. Honolulu, HI: Centers and Peripheries in Heian Japan/University of Hawaii.
  • Piggott, J. R. (2006). Capital and Countryside in Japan 300-1180. Ithaca, NY: Capital and Countryside in Japan 300-1180/Cornell University Press.

Multimedia Scholarship and Creative Works

  • I created and maintain a web-based database of slides for the history of premodern Japan that I make accessible to my students. Slides shown in classes can be viewed and studied independently by the students of my classes., 2008-2009   

Teaching Innovations and Multimedia Teaching

  • Web Slide Database for Teaching Japanese History, 9/1/2000-  

Honors and Awards

  • Endowed Chair, Gordon MacDonald Chair in History, 1/1/2003-12/31/2007  
  • Arisawa Prize, from the Association of University Presses, for The Emergence of Japanese Kingship, 1997-1998  
  • Japan Foundation Fellow, Historiographical Institute, University of Tokyo, 1995-1996  

Service to the Profession

Committees
  • Member, Board of Directors, Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Study, Yokohama, Japan, 4/1/2003-4/30/2008  
Editorships and Editorial Boards
  • Executive Editor, Center for East Asian Studies Monograph Series at Cornell, 1998-2001  
Professional Memberships
  • American Historical Association, 2007-2008   
  • Association for Asian Studies, 2007-2008   
  • Mokkan Gakkai (Nara, Japan), 2007-2008   
  • Society for East Asian Archaeology, 2007-2008   
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