Michael Emmerich
UCLA, Yanai Initiative, Japan Past & Present. Professor, Director
Paula R. Curtis
UCLA, Yanai Initiative, Japan Past & Present. Academic Administrator, Operations Leader
Angelika Koch
Leiden University. University Lecturer Premodern Japanese History and Culture
Fellow Travelers: Mobilizing Archives Global and Local with Japan Past & Present
Scholarly communities emerge around and are sustained by archives. As a digital information hub and repository for open-access resources, Japan Past & Present (JPP) seeks to mobilize the centripetal force of the archive to reimagine the Japanese humanities as a genuinely global field. On the one hand, JPP works to provide global access to archives and information; on the other, it offers funding to incentivize the formation of global groups of scholars who tap into the potential of local archives. This two-part presentation by Michael Emmerich and Paula R. Curtis of the Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities at UCLA will introduce ongoing JPP projects of both types, a number of which have been developed in close partnership with library and information science specialists and focus on underused collections and metadata, as a way of clarifying the vision and potential of this innovative digital effort. A complementary discussion session moderated by JPP Early Modern Collaborative Project Manager Angelika Koch (Leiden University), will encourage open dialogue with EAJRS participants about possible directions for the future “unbinding” of collections, and about how we might continue to “bind” global scholarly communities together in more equitable ways.