Thomas D. Conlan

Associate Professor of History and Asian Studies

Fall 2008

  • The Courtly Society of Heian Japan (ASIAN 281)
  • The Origins of Japanese Culture and Civilization (ASIAN 283)
  • Honors Seminar in History (HIST 451)
Phone (207) 725-3507
Title Associate Professor
Department HISTORY
2nd Title Associate Professor
2nd Department ASIAN STUDIES
Work Location 101 38 College Street
E-Mail tconlan@bowdoin.edu
Thomas D. Conlan: Bowdoin College: Asian Studies and History

THOMAS CONLAN (Associate Professor, joint appointment in Asian Studies). Having studied Japanese history at the University of Michigan (BA 1986), Kyoto University, and Stanford University (Ph.D., 1998). He teaches courses that span the range of Japanese history. Tom's scholarship focuses medieval Japanese history, and in particular the nature of warfare and the role of Buddhism and the state. He has published two monographs: In Little Need of Divine Intervention (Cornell, 2001); and State of War: The Violent Order of Fourteenth Century Japan (Michigan, 2003) and has recently published an article about the significance of wet nurses in Japan (Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 2005).

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EDUCATION:

Stanford University, Ph.D., History 1998
Major concentration:  Japan before 1600
Minor concentration: Japan since 1600
Kyoto University, faculty of letters, Ph.D. Program, History
Attended from April 1995 until September 1997
Stanford University, M.A., History 1992
The University of Michigan, 1989
B.A. History and Japanese, with Highest Honors

PUBLICATIONS:

Monographs

State of War: The Violent Order of Fourteenth-Century Japan. Center of Japanese Studies, the University of Michigan, December 2003.

In Little Need of Divine Intervention: Scrolls of the Mongol Invasions of Japan. Cornell East Asia Series, August 2001 (Currently in second printing).  

State of War: The Violent Order of Fourteenth-Century Japan: Thomas Conlan     In Little Need of Divine Intervention: Scrolls of the Mongol Invasions of Japan

Forthcoming Articles

Instruments of Change: Organizational Technology and the Consolidation of Regional Power in Japan 1333-1600. Rosenbluth ed., War and Politics in Medieval Japan (New Haven: Yale Center for East Asian Studies, forthcoming)

Myth, Memory and The Mongol Invasions of Japan. Mino et. al., eds. Reinventing the Past: Archaism and Antiquarianism in East Asian Art and Visual Culture (Chicago: The Center for the Art of East Asia, University of Chicago and Art Media Resources, Inc., 2008)

Traces of the Past: Documents, Literacy and Liturgy in Medieval Japan. Lorraine Harrington and G. Cameron Hurst III, eds., Rethinking Medieval Japan: Essays in Honor of Jeffrey P. Mass (Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Southern California, forthcoming).

Published Articles

Thicker than Blood:  The Social and Political Significance of Wet Nurses in Japan, 950-1330.  Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 65.1 (June 2005), pp. 159-205.

The Culture of Force and Farce: Fourteenth-Century Japanese Warfare [pdfPDF].  Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies Occasional Papers in Japanese Studies. No. 2000-01 (January 2000).

The Origins of Japan's Medieval WorldThe Nature of Warfare in Fourteenth-Century Japan: The Record of Nomoto Tomoyuki [ jstorlock]. The Journal of Japanese Studies 25.2.  (Summer 1999), pp. 299-330.

On the Nature of Warfare in the Fourteenth Century (Nanbokuchoki kassen no ichikosatsu), in "yama sensei taikan kinen ronsh" kai, ed., Nihon shakai no shiteki kozo kodai ch“sei (Kyoto:  Shibunkaku, 1997), pp. 417-439.

Largesse and the Limits of Loyalty in the Fourteenth Century, in Mass, ed., The Origins of Japan's Medieval World (Stanford University Press, 1997), pp. 39-64.


Multimedia Projects

Scrolls of the Mongol Invasions of Japan Scrolls of the Heiji Disturbance
Scrolls of the Mongol Invasions of Japan Scrolls of the Heiji Disturbance

Book Reviews

Olaf G. Liden, Tanegashima: The Arrival of Europe in Japan (Copenhagen:  Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 2002) Monumenta Nipponica 58.3 (Autumn 2003), pp. 412-14.

Lee Butler, Emperor and Aristocracy in Japan, 1467-1680 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, 2002) The Journal of Asian Studies 62.4 (November 2003), pp. 1239-40.

G. C. Hurst, Armed Martial Arts of Japan (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998) Monumenta Nipponica 54.1 (Spring 1999), pp. 162-65.

ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES:

Selected Presentations

Adapting to Endemic War: Fourteenth Century Improvements in Arms and Armor
Presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, San Diego March 7, 2004

Courtly Archivists of Precedent and Political Authority in Japan 850-1350.
Presented at a Workshop on Experts and Expertise in Pre- and Early Modern Societies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. October 6, 2001

From Sovereign to Symbol: A Liturgy of Legitimation in Fourteenth Century Japan.
Presented at Reconstructing Medieval Japan: A Symposium in Honor of Jeffrey P. Mass Stanford University May 5, 2001

The Culture of Force and Farce: Fourteenth Century Japanese Warfare.
Presented at the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University and The Donald Keene Institute, Columbia University. September 24, 1999 and March 20, 2000

The Role of Women and Weapons in Medieval Japanese Warfare.
Presented at a symposium of comparative medieval history at the University of San Francisco. April 14, 2000

In Little Need of Divine Intervention.
Presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, San Diego. March 11, 2000

Innovation or Application?  The Role of Technology in War.
Presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, Boston. March 13, 1999

Largesse and the Limits of Loyalty: Lordly Obligations in the Age of Two Courts.
Presented at a symposium on Fourteenth Century Japan, Hertford College, Oxford University, England. September 2, 1994

Other Academic Activities:

Chair, Asian Studies Program, Bowdoin College January 2004 - present

Helped create a webpage about the Mongol Invasion Scrolls
http://academic.bowdoin.edu/mongol_scrolls

Joined a Japan Foundation round table discussion, "On the past, present, and future of Japanese Studies" on July 8, 2002.  Published in Kokusai Koryu no. 97 (10.2002), pp. 68-79.  

Appeared on the National Geographic special Samurai: Behind the Blade (aired December 2, 2003) and the History Channel special Samurai (televised December 8, 2003). In addition, was interviewed by Newsday for an article about the Mongol Invasions of Japan (December 17, 2002) and appeared on the radio program "These Days" station KBBS, San Diego, December 4, 2003. Have also been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, the LA Times, and the Sacramento Bee concerning the warrior culture of Japan

SELECTED ACADEMIC AWARDS:

2001-02                  National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship
2001-02                  Fulbright Research Grant
1999, 2001, 2004     Freeman Fellowship
1989                      Phi Beta Kappa

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

Conceptions of law, justice, and feuding; Buddhism and medieval political ideologies; international relations and ethnic identity; military, social, cultural and institutional history

LANGUAGES:

Japanese (fluent)
Proficiency in Classical Japanese and Classical Chinese (kanbun)
Paleography (ability to decipher handwritten Japanese documents and texts)