EAJS Council Election 2014-2017
Candidates' Self-introductions and Statements
Dr Anna Andreeva
Statement
I am very pleased to receive the nomination for the extended EAJS Council. The European
Association of Japanese Studies is the largest venue for developing and presenting cuttingedge research on Japan’s contemporary affairs, history, language, and culture outside of Japan
and the US, and I think it is crucial to sustain and strengthen its development in the
foreseeable future.
If offered membership in the EAJS extended council, I will work across the following three
areas: First, I want to make sure that pre-modern Japan research in Europe and beyond
continues to thrive. To this end, I will lead and support the organization of workshops and
summer schools that provide vital training to graduate students and young scholars enabling
them to read and interpret pre-modern sources (particularly, written in kanbun). Second, I will
support the research and exchange initiatives that combine the established disciplines with
the emerging fields of inquiry and new methodologies. In this, I want to contribute to future
Japan studies in Europe broadly across a range of disciplines. And third, I will work to
strengthen the links between research and teaching of Japan at both the established and
emerging centres for Japanese Studies, and to facilitate and develop the networking
opportunities for early career Japan scholars.
Curriculum Vitae
I earned my doctorate at University of Cambridge in 2006, and spent a year at Reischauer
Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard, before returning to Cambridge as a Junior Research
Fellow in 2007. In 2010, I joined the Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global Context”
at University of Heidelberg, where I work as a research fellow (Akademische Mitarbeiterin)
and teach courses on Buddhism and pre-modern Japan. During 2012-2013, I was a visiting
researcher at International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken) in Kyoto,
before coming back to Heidelberg where I currently direct a project on the economies of the
sacred.
My recent research has focused on the relationship between the systems of knowledge and
beliefs related to Esoteric Buddhism and their impact on the fields of the religious and cultural
production in medieval Japan (for example, the worship of Japanese deities, kami). I also work
on the cultural history of pregnancy, childbirth and child-rearing, and the cross-cultural
development and transmission of medical and religious knowledge, particularly that related
to female body and gender in pre-modern Japan.
EDUCATION
2006 Ph.D., Japanese Religions/Cultural History, University of Cambridge (aw. May 2007),
UK
2002 M.Phil., Japanese Studies/Literature, University of Cambridge, UK
2001 M.A., Japanese Studies/Literature, Kanazawa University, Japan
1997 B.A., Japanese Studies, Irkutsk State Linguistic University, Siberia, Russia
ACADEMIC SERVICE
International symposia and conference organisation
2014 Section convener, European Association of Japanese Studies, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
2011a “Kami cults and notions of transculturality in Ancient Japan”, Heidelberg.
2011b “Childbirth and women’s health in pre-modern societies”, Heidelberg.
2011c Section convener. European Association of Japanese Studies, Tallinn, Estonia.
2010 “Imagining the feminine in medicine and religion in pre-modern East Asia”
Cluster “Asia and Europe”, Heidelberg.
Panel chairing and discussing
2012 Panel organizer and chair, “Cultural mobility and religious practice in pre-modern
Japan”, British Association of Japanese Studies, University of East Anglia, UK.
2011a Discussant at a research conference on Shinto Ritual Archaeology, Alsace, France.
2011b Discussant and chair, “Healing throughout the six realms: transformative rituals in
Japanese Buddhism”. European Association of Japanese Studies, Tallinn, Estonia.
Summer schools and PhD workshops
2013 Advisor at a PhD dissertation workshop, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain.
2012 Ten-day international summer school on pre-modern Japanese texts, Heidelberg
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Research Associate, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Cambridge
Research Associate, Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard
Member, Section Convener, European Association of Japanese Studies (EAJS)
Association of Asian Studies (AAS)
List of Selected Publications
Assembling Shinto: Buddhist Approaches to Kami Worship in Medieval Japan (monograph,
accepted for publication).
2014 “The ‘Earthquake Insect’: conceptualising disasters in pre-modern Japan”. In Monica
Juneja and Gerrit Jasper Schenk, eds., Disaster as Image: Iconographies and Media Strategies
across Europe and Asia, (Regensburg: Schnell & Steiner, 2014), pp. 81-90.
2014 “Childbirth in aristocratic households in Heian Japan”. Dynamis, special journal issue,
Childbirth and Women’s Healthcare in Pre-modern Societies, eds. Anna Andreeva, Erica CoutuFerreira, and Susanne Töpfer. Forthcoming.
2011 “Miwaryû no seiritsu” 三輪流の成立 (The Formation of the Miwa Lineage). In Ito
Satoshi, ed., Chûse Shinwa, Chûsei Jingi, Shintô no Sekai 中世神話・中世神祇、神道の世界
(Medieval Myths and Kami Worship). Tokyo: Chikurinsha, pp. 221-239.
2010 “The Origins of the Great Miwa Deity: The transformation of a sacred mountain in premodern Japan”, Monumenta Nipponica 65/2: 245-295
2010 “Medieval Shinto: new discoveries and perspectives”, in Religion Compass, Volume 4,
Issue 11, pp. 679-693. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Permanent link:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1749-8171.2010.00243.x/abstract