Gregory Clancey

I received my PhD in the History of Science and Technology from MIT. My research is mainly about modern Japan, ranging from architecture, to Meiji-period society and culture, to earthquakes. I'm also interested in the histories of computers and information technology, scientific constructions of race and gender, colonialism, environmentalism, landscape, bio-technology, and the drawing of boundaries between science and art. I've co-edited (with M.R. Smith) Major Problems in the History of American Technology (Boston:Houghton-Mifflin, 1998). Since coming to the NUS history department in 1999, I've taught courses in the histories of science and technology in the Asia/Pacific region and the United States, and on the social/cultural history of modern Japan ("From Samurai to Sony"). I'm also team-teaching the first-year course on modern world history. When I'm not teaching, I like to relax by watching a good giallo film, especially those of Massimo Dellamano.

TEACHING AREAS:

• The Making of the Modern World
• Technology and Culture in the Asia-Pacific
• From Samurai to Sony: The History of Japan

CURRENT RESEARCH:

• The book manuscript I'm at work on is tentatively entitled Foreign Knowledge: The Cultural Economy of Japanese Earthquakes. It draws on scientific, architectural, engineering, and popular earthquake-related narratives from the Meiji and Taisho periods to say something about nationalism, colonialism, and catastrophe. I’ve published some of this material as book chapters and journal articles over the last two years. My interest in earthquake narratives has recently led me into a larger area one might call ‘the history of emergency? Two book chapters on this theme (one co-written with Ryan Bishop) will appear in 2003.