Morgan Pitelka
Morgan Pitelka is the Bernard L. Herman Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His scholarship and teaching focus on the history of late medieval and early modern Japan, with an emphasis on material culture, environmental history, and urban history.
Affiliations:
CURRENT RESEARCH
The Earth Beneath Our Feet: Material Culture and the Environment in Seventeenth-Century Kyoto, a book in progress by Morgan Pitelka
This book explores the interplay between material culture and environmental transformation in early modern Kyoto. Through an examination of ceramics, urban archaeology, and environmental history, the book traces how natural elements—earth, water, tea, flora and fauna, climate, and fire—shaped the city’s development from the unification era through the late 17th-century. Each chapter focuses on a specific environmental theme, revealing how Kyoto’s artisans, merchants, and elites engaged with and adapted to their surroundings. The narrative culminates in an epilogue that connects early modern practices to contemporary environmental and cultural movements, positioning Kyoto as a city where nature, culture, and commerce have long been deeply intertwined.
A Global History of Ceramics in Japan, coedited by Meghen Jones, Andrew Maske, Seung Yeon Sang, and Morgan Pitelka
From everyday vessels to ritualistic objects and works of art, ceramics have played crucial roles in Japanese aesthetics, society, and culture for over 12,000 years. This book aims to offer the first multi-author, comprehensive study in English of ceramics in Japan, spanning the prehistoric to modern eras. Its authors, leading scholars based on three continents, employ an array of innovative approaches, ranging from the explanation of archaeological findings to analysis of archival and museum sources to first-person accounts from contemporary curators and ceramicists.
