Barak Kushner

Barak Kushner teaches modern Japanese history in the Faculty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies (formerly the Faculty of Oriental Studies) at the University of Cambridge and has a PhD in History from Princeton University. In the summer of 2008 he was a visiting scholar at Nanjing University (China) and during 2009 he was a visiting scholar at Waseda University (Japan). He was a 2008 Abe Fellow and conducted research concerning “Cold War Propaganda in East Asia and Historical Memory.”

Previously, Kushner worked in the US Department of State as a political officer in East Asian affairs and taught Chinese and Japanese history at Davidson College in North Carolina, USA. As a scholar he has written on wartime Japanese and Chinese propaganda, Japanese media, Sino-Japanese relations, Asian comedy, and is presently penning a history of ramen noodles.

The Thought War, Kushner’s first book, delves into the history of wartime Japanese propaganda. His second book (almost finished), entitled Slurp!: A social history of ramen, the Japanese noodle soup, focuses on food and history. He is also working on a third book that analyzes the postwar adjudication of Japanese war crimes in China, tentatively titled, "Men to Devils and Devils to Men": Japanese War Crimes and Cold War Sino-Japan Relations. Kushner’s academic articles have appeared in Diplomatic History, The International History Review, Japanese Studies, Journal of Popular Culture, and the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. He also has three book chapters in press: one concerns a postwar media history of Godzilla. The two other chapters deal with Kamishibai and children’s wartime propaganda in Japan, and the Chinese influence on Taisho notions of modern cuisine in Japan. A chapter on Japan's 1940 Olympic plans is also forthcoming in an edited volume.

Dr. Kushner received his BA from Brandeis University and then began his career as a high school teacher of social studies in Chicago. Later, he traveled to Iwate, Japan where he taught English, lived in a Buddhist temple, and attended Japanese elementary school, studying Japanese along with other students ages 6-12. He lived in Japan for over 5 years in Tokyo, Yokohama and Iwate and studied at Rikkyo University and Tokyo University. After completing courses in advanced Japanese, Kushner was an editor/​translator at the National Institute for Research Advancement, a think tank in Tokyo. He taught western history at Shenyang Teacher’s University in the north of China where he also studied Chinese and began research in Chinese history. After returning to the United States he attended graduate school at Princeton University and received a PhD in Asian history.

Upon receiving his doctorate Barak taught Japanese and Chinese history in the Department of History at Davidson College in North Carolina. At Davidson College Dr. Kushner taught classes that included a two semester survey of East Asian History; a Modern Japanese History class; a senior seminar on Twentieth Century Chinese History; an upper-level class on Wartime Japanese Culture and Propaganda; and an upper division course on Asian Nationalism and Martial Arts Films.

Dr. Kushner has been invited to speak about East Asian History at National Taiwan University, Nanjing University, SOAS, University of Bristol, University of Oxford, Tokyo University, Waseda University, the University of Alaska at Anchorage, Kansas University, Western Michigan University, Rowan University, Occidental College, George Washington University, Indiana State University, Hebrew University (Jerusalem), and the University of Oregon. He also serves as an historical consultant for the Japan Society in New York City. Barak has completed several academic translations on economics and military history from Japanese to English. He speaks and reads Japanese, Chinese, and French.

Dr. Kushner has received a few fellowships: In 2009 he was part of a Taiwanese Ministry of Education Foreign Summer Grant sponsored international academic team with the project “Exploring the Cultural Faces of Taiwan 1945-1960.” In 2008 he was awarded an Abe Fellowship to conduct research (from 2008-2010) into the legal history of the early Cold War in East Asia. He used the award in both China and Japan. In 2007 he received a summer grant from the Japan Foundation Endowment Committee for work on the history of Japanese food. While teaching at Davidson College (2002-2005) he received support from three Freeman Foundation grants to conduct research in Japan, China, and Korea. In 2004 Dr. Kushner also received Freeman Foundation support to travel to Mongolia on an SIT-sponsored tour.

During his last year in graduate school Barak studied advanced Chinese in Taipei, Taiwan while conducting research supported by a David L. Boren National Security Education Program (NSEP) Graduate International Fellowship. Princeton University supported his graduate work with a History Department Fellowship and later he conducted dissertation research in Japan on a Fulbright IIE Graduate Research Grant.