Nancy K. Stalker

Interests

Biography

Research interests

Professor Stalker's scholarship examines the relationship between cultural and religious practice and national identity in modern Japan. Her first book, on new religious movements in the 1920s-30s, is entitled Prophet Motive: Deguchi Onisaburo, Oomoto and the Rise of New Religions in Imperial Japan. Her next monographic project will examine the role of ikebana, the art of flower arrangement, in constructing national and international Japanese identity in the twentieth century, especially focusing on its rapid expansion in postwar Japan from the 1950s-70s.  Other research interests include the conception of traditional Japanese cuisine and gender ideology. 

Courses taught

Introduction to Japan; Modern Japan; History of Japanese Religions; History of Religions of Asia; Religion and Rebellion in Modern East Asia;  War and Defeat in Japanese History and Memory; Imperial Japan; Readings in Modern East Asia;

Awards/Honors

Professor Stalker has won research fellowships from the Fullbright Association; the Japan Foundation, Yale University Council on East Asian Studies, Dartmouth College Humanities Institute, Stanford University Institute of International Studies (Stanford University), A.W. Mellon and Hosei University International scholars.