Profile

Eiko Ikegami is University Senior Fellow, and Walter A. Eberstadt Professor of Sociology Emeritus at The New School for Social Research.Ikegami is broadly interested in the dynamics of long-term social, cultural and technological changes with a focus on diverse routes to modernities in non-western societies. Currently, she also is a visiting fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton. 

Her 2005 book, Bonds of Civility: Aesthetic Networks and the political Origins of Japanese Culture (Cambridge Univ. Press) discusses the process in which how in premodern Japan, politeness, art and politics became inseparable through mobilizing what she called "aesthetic publics". By theorizing dynamic interplays among social and cognitive networks that elicit even tacit cultural practices, the book won five book awards including 

• John Whitney Hall Book Prize, Association for Asian Studies. 
• Mary Douglas Prize, (Best Book Award in Cultural Sociology), American Sociological Association.
• Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Award in Political Sociology, American Sociological Association.
• The Mirra Komarovsky Book Award, Eastern Sociological Society.

and extensively reviewed in journals from Science Magazine to the Times Literary Supplement. 

Ikegami is also well-known for her book, The Taming of the Samurai: Honorific Individualism and the Making of Modern Japan (1995: Harvard Univ. Press) which explicated the important roles that the samurai played in Japanese history. The book is widely recognized as a classic statement on this subject, to become "standard reading in universities around the world", according to a review in Foreign Affairs; the book has been translated into several languages. Ikegami was elected as a Chair of the Section of Comparative and Historical Sociology at the American Sociological Association in 2003. At the New School, together with Louise Tilly,  Ikegami was a founding co-chair that initiated the creation of the Department of Historical Studies.  

Since 2007 Ikegami has been working on a novel research project that employs "virtual ethnography". Stemming from her theorizing the notion of publics, her research investigates virtual worlds as communicative spheres, and more broadly, discusses how digital technology draws forth latent capabilities of cognitively or physically challenged populations such as autistic people. Her work was featured in a series of 3 TV documentaries, in collaboration with Japanese national TV, NHK on the topic of how autistic individuals found their expressions through socializing as avatars in virtual worlds. A recent interview regarding her work on virtual worlds is available here.

Her pioneering research in this area has been supported by grants from the NSF, An Investigator Award in Health Policy from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and also by an Abe fellowship. Ikegami recently published three books in Japanese on digital avatars and people with non-typical intelligences.  The first one is Hyper-Worlds：Kyokan shiau jiheisho avatars (Hyper-Worlds: Mutual Emphathy between Autistic Avatars in Virtual Worlds": 2017. The second one is Jiheisho to iu chisei（Autistic Intelligences): 2019.  The third one is Edo to Avatars: Watakushitachi no uchinaru diversity (Edo and Avatars: In search of our internal diversities:  ) 2020

Her most recent book, Edo and Avatars links Ikegami's digital culture research with her historical sociology of long-term social change.  Therefore this new book plays an axial role in her oeuvre.  On the one hand, it is the third volume of a trilogy of three Japanese books on diverse intelligences.  On the other hand, it fulfills the function of a third volume in a different trilogy of Japanese books that spans her work on historical Japanese culture, following her two main English-language works which are both translated into Japanese.  

Professor Ikegami was born in Tokyo, and was a journalist for Nikkei (Japan Economic Journal, Tokyo) before she went into sociology. Ikegami had taught at Yale University as Associate Professor before moving to the New School. She also held a number of visiting appointments and fellowships such as the New York Public Library. Her current project includes Japanese Postwar Capitalism: Cultural History. She has been also working on a book on Kyoto Gion Matsuri: One City, One Festival, a Thousand Years of  Taming Epidemics. 

Areas of Focus: Comparative historical sociology; Japanese society; theory; cultural sociology; economic sociology; Information technology, autism and diverse intelligences.

Degrees Held

PhD 1989, Sociology, Harvard University

Professional Affiliation

American Sociological Association

Association for Asian Studies

Recent Publications

Selected publications include:

Books:

Edo to Avatars: Watakushi tachi no uchinaru diversity (Edo and Avatars: In Search for our Internal Diversity) with Yuko Tanaka. Tokyo, ( Asahi Shuppan, 2020)

Jiheisho to iu chisei（Autistic Intelligences)：Tokyo,　(NHK shuppan, 2019)

Hyper-Worlds：Kyokan shiau jiheisho avatars(Hyper-World: Autistic Avatars in Virtual World"); Tokyo (NTT shuppan: 2017）

Bonds of Civility: Aesthetic Networks and Political Origins of Japanese Culture (Cambridge University Press, 2005)

• 2007 John Whitney Hall Book Prize, Association for Asian Studies.
• 2006 The Mirra Komarovsky Book Award, Eastern Sociological Society.
• 2006 Mary Douglas Prize, (Best Book Award in Cultural Sociology), American Sociological Association.
• 2006 Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Award in Political Sociology, American Sociological Association.
• 2006 Barrington Moore Award, A honorable mention, American Sociological Association.

Bito Reisetsu no Kizuna (NTT shuppan 2005)

Meiyo to Junno (NTT shuppan. 2000)

The Taming of the Samurai: Honorific Individualism and the Making of Modern Japan (Harvard University Press, 1995)

• 1995, the Best Book Award on Asia, American Sociological Association,
• Spanish, Polish, Korean, and Japanes translations available, Chineese translation forthcoming soon.

Others

“Waiting for the Flying Fish to Leap: Revisiting the Values and Individuality Practiced by Tokugawa People,” Early Modern Values and Individuality (2015)

"Visualizing Networked Self: Agency, Reflexivity, and the Social Life of Avatars,“ Social Research (2013)

“Emotions,” chapter in Oxford Concise Companion to History (2012)

“Avatars are for Real: Virtual Communities and Public Spheres--a Reflection on Two Virtual Networks in early modern Japan and Contemporary Digital Culture”, with Piet Hut, Journal of Virtual Worlds Research (2008)

"Bringing Culture into Macro-Structural Analysis in Historical Sociology: Some Epistemological Considerations", Poetics (2005)

"Citizenship and National Identity in Early Meiji Japan, 1868-1889: A Comparative Assessment", International Review of Social History (1995)

 

Performances and Appearances

TV Documentaries: 3 series, "A Journy with Autistic Avatars, No.1-3" in collaborating with NHK (Japan's national TV) based on her research in  "Hyper-World".  Broadcasted in 2017, 2018, 2019

 Direct Talk: Appreciating Neurodiversity, Eiko Ikegami (Interview)---NHK World

Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire.  PBS

Search Results

Web resultAppreciating Neurodiversity Eiko Ikegami - NHK WORLD

Search Results

Web results

Research Interests

Public spheres in comparative perspective; Japanese culture, civility and state formation; identities, network, and social change.  capitalism and culture, virtual worlds, technology, creativity and diverse intelligence, autism.

Awards And Honors

• 2018-  Visitor,  Institute for Advanced Study, Program for Interdisciplinary Studies, Princeton
• 2015-Present, Japan Foundation, American Advisory Board member
• 2012-2014 Investigator Award in Health Policy Research, Robert Wood Johson Foundation
• 2011,  National Science Foundation Grant
• 2009,  National Science Foundation Grant
• 2010 Abe Fellowship, SSRC/Japan Foundation
• 2007 John Whitney Hall Book Prize, Association for Asian Studies.
• 2006 The Mirra Komarovsky Book Award, Eastern Sociological Society.
• 2006 Mary Douglas Prize, (Best Book Award in Cultural Sociology), American Sociological Association.
• 2006 Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Award in Political Sociology, American Sociological Association.
• 2006 Barrington Moore Award, A honorable mention, American Sociological Association.
• 2005, Chair: American Sociological Association, Section of Comparative Historical Sociology, elected.
• 2001 Fellow, the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, New York Public Library
• 1995, the Best Book Award on Asia, American Sociological Association
• 1995-1996 Senior Faculty Fellowship, Yale University
• 1993 SSRC/NEH research award
• 1990-91, 91-92 Research Grant Award, Henry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, 
• 1990-91 Member, Institute for Advanced Study, School of Social Science, Princeton
• 1987-88, SSRC Dissertation Fellowship

Portfolio

Website in Japanese language

Books

Blog on diverse intelligences