Morgan Pitelka
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
- 2022-present, Bernard L. Herman Distinguished Professor, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (UNC)
- 2019-present, Chair, Dept. of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (UNC)
- 2016-2022, Professor, Depts. of History and Asian Studies, UNC
- 2013-2019, Director, Carolina Asia Center, UNC
- 2011-2013, Director, Triangle Center for Japanese Studies, UNC
- 2010-2016, Associate Professor (with tenure), Dept. of Asian Studies, UNC
- 2008-2010, Chair, Asian Studies Dept., Occidental College
- 2007-2010, Associate Professor (with tenure), Occidental College
- 2001-2007, Luce Assistant Professor of Asian Studies, Occidental College
EDUCATION
- 2001, Princeton University, PhD, East Asian Studies Dept.
- 1998-99, Kyoto University, visiting researcher, Japanese History
- 1994, Oberlin College, BA, honors in East Asian Studies, history minor
- 1992-93, Associated Kyoto Program, Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan
HONORS AND GRANTS
- 2021, Honorable mention, William F. Sibley Memorial Award for Japanese Translation
- 2017-2018, Academic Leadership Program, Institute for the Arts and Humanities, UNC
- 2017, Faculty Fellowship, Institute for the Arts and Humanities, UNC
- 2016, Book Prize, Southeastern Conference of the Association of Asian Studies
- 2011-2012, National Humanities Center Fellowship
- 2012, Research Fellowship, Medieval and Early Modern Studies Program, UNC (declined)
- 2008-2010, Associate-in-Research, East Asian Studies Center, USC
- 2007-2008, NEH Fellowship
- 2004, Occidental College, Advisor of the Year Award
- 2001, Sainsbury Postdoctoral Fellowship, SOAS, University of London
- 1999-2000, Santokuan Fellowship
- 1998-99, Fulbright-IIE Grant
- 1998, Fulbright-Hays Grant (declined)
- 1998, Smithsonian Predoctoral Fellowship, Freer and Sackler Galleries
- 1997-1998, Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS)
- 1994-95, Watson Fellowship (Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Thailand)
- 1994, Honors in East Asian Studies, Oberlin College
- 1994, Phi Beta Kappa, Oberlin chapter
TEACHING
- ASIA 63: First-Year Seminar: Japanese Tea Culture
- JAPN 231/HIST 271: Ancient and Medieval Japanese History and Culture
- JAPN 246/HIST 247: Early Modern Japanese History and Culture
- JAPN 363/HIST 370: Samurai, Monks, and Pirates: History & Historiography of Japan’s Long Sixteenth Century
- JAPN 451: Swords, Tea Bowls, and Woodblock Prints: Exploring Japanese Material Culture
- HIST 720: Readings in Asian History
- HIST 890: Material Culture and Material Histories
- ASIA 725: Methods and Themes in Asian and Middle Eastern History
GRADUATE STUDENTS
- Jason Castro, M.A.-Ph.D. student, Department of History, UNC, co-advisor with Cemil Aydin
- Megan McClory, M.A.-Ph.D. student, Department of History, UNC, advisor.
- Sophie Eichelberger, M.A. student, Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, UNC, advisor.
- Sylvie Hack, M.A. student, Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, UNC, advisor.
- Dalvin Tsay, Ph.D. candidate, Department of History, UNC, committee member.
- Morgan Wilson, Ph.D. candidate, Department of History, UNC, co-advisor with Susan Pennybacker.
VIDEO
- 2022, Arizona State University, “Daily Life in a Medieval (Japanese) City”
- 2022, Seattle Urasenke Tankokai, Seattle Asian Art Museum, “The Way of Tea: Tradition and Innovation in a Changing World” (“Teabowl Truths in Chanoyu” from 56:47-1:12:35)
- 2022, JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles, “The Ceramics of Mino”
- 2022, Carolina Public Humanities, “The Global Relevance of Japan”
- 2022, Autonomous University of Barcelona, “The Reception of Korean Ceramics in Japan (1537-1647),” a resource for the online exhibition “Stories of Clay: Discovering Choson Korean Potters in Tokugawa Japan“
- 2021, Alfred University, "The Social Life of Raku Teabowls," part of the conference "Path of the Teabowl"
- 2021, Ackland Art Museum, “Valuable Vessels I: An Oribe Dish from Japan“
- 2021, Joan B. Mirviss Japanese Fine Art, “Tea as Context: Treasuring Ceramics,” (Raku ceramics from 33:50-43:30 and 1:10:13-1:18:33)
- 2020, Carolina Public Humanities, Virtual Happy Hour, “Monasteries and Mountaintops: Religious Traditions of Solitude,” (eremitic traditions in China and Japan from 4:40-15:23)
- 2020, University of Michigan, Center for Japanese Studies, “Reading Medieval Ruins: A Material History of Urban Life in 16th-Century Japan“
- 2018, Durham Tech Global Distinction program, “Tokugawa Japan’s Floating World“
- 2018, Durham Tech Global Distinction program, “Japan’s Modern Revolution: The Meiji Restoration and Japanese Modernity“
- 2017, Ishibashi Foundation Keynote Lecture, Kyushu National Museum, “Individuals, Objects, and Networks in the History of Japanese Tea Culture“
PODCASTS
- 2022, New Books Network, hosted by Jingyi Li, Letters from Japan's Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
- 2020, Michigan Talks Japan hosted by Dr. Allison Alexy, Episode Five
- 2017, The Institute Podcast from UNC’s Institute for Arts and Humanities, Episode 43
- 2016, New Books in East Asian Studies, hosted by Dr. Carla Nappi,Spectacular Accumulation
PUBLICATIONS
Books
- Reading Medieval Ruins: Urban Life and Destruction in Sixteenth-Century Japan.Cambridge University Press, 2022.
- Letters from Japan’s Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries: The Correspondence of Warlords, Tea Masters, Zen Priests, and Aristocrats, with Reiko Tanimura and Takashi Masuda. University of California, Berkeley, IEAS Publications, 2021.
- Japanese Art: Critical and Primary Sources. Editor. 4 vols. Material Cultures; Visual Cultures; Printed Matter; and Sites and Patrons, Knowledge and Power. London: Bloomsbury, 2018.
- Spectacular Accumulation: Material Culture, Tokugawa Ieyasu, and Samurai Sociability. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i Press, 2016. Winner, 2016 Book Prize, Southeastern Conference of the Association of Asian Studies.
- Kyoto Visual Culture in the Early Edo and Meiji Periods: The Arts of Reinvention. Coeditor with Alice Tseng. New York: Routledge, 2016.
- What’s the Use of Art? Asian Visual and Material Culture in Context. Coeditor with Jan Mrazek. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i Press, 2007.
- Handmade Culture: Raku Potters, Patrons, and Tea Practitioners in Japan. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i Press, 2005.
- Japanese Tea Culture: Art, History, and Practice. Editor. London and New York: Routledge, 2003.
Selected essays
- “The Life and Afterlife of Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616),” in Gary P. Leupp and De-min Tao, eds., The Tokugawa World (Routledge, 2021).
- “Name and Fame: Material Objects as Authority, Security, and Legacy” in Mary Elizabeth Berry and Marcia Yonemoto, ed.,What is a Family? Answers from Early Modern Japan (University of California Press, 2019)
- “The Return of Seduction,” in Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 77.2 (2017): 153-163.
- “Chinese Ceramics and Warrior Sociability in Sixteenth-Century Japan,” in Dora Ching, Louise Cort, and Andrew Watsky, ed. Around Chigusa: Tea and the Arts of Sixteenth-Century Japan. Princeton University Press, 2017.
- “Form and Function: Tea Bowls and the Problem of Zen in Chanoyu,” in Pamela D. Winfield and Steven Heine, ed., Zen and Material Culture. Oxford University Press, 2017.
- “Warriors, Tea, and Art in Premodern Japan.” Samurai: Beyond the Sword. Ed. Birgitta Augustin. Detroit Institute of Arts, 2014.
- “The Tokugawa Storehouse: Ieyasu’s Encounters with Things.” Early Modern Things: Objects and their Histories, 1500-1800. Ed. Paula Findlen. London and New York: Routledge, 2013.
- “Art, Agency, and Networks in the Career of Tokugawa Ieyasu.” Blackwell Companion to Asian Art. Ed. Deborah Hutton and Rebecca Brown. New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.
- “The Empire of Things: Tokugawa Ieyasu’s Material Legacy and Cultural Profile.” Japanese Studies (May, 2009).
- “A Raku Wastewater Container and the Problem of Monolithic Sincerity.” Impressions 30 (2008). In Japanese translation: “Raku no kensui to ichimaiwateki seijitsusei no mondaiten.” Bijutsu Forum 21 (2010).
- “Introduction to the Early Modern Warrior Experience.” Early Modern Japan 16 (2008).
- “Back to the Fundamentals: ‘Reproducing’ Rikyû and Chōjirō in Japanese Tea Culture.” In Rupert Cox, ed. The Culture of Copying in Japan: Critical and Historical Perspectives. London and New York: Routledge, 2007. Slightly altered and in Japanese translation: “Chanoyu ni okeru ‘utsushi’: dentō bunka no eizokuka” [Reproduction in Japanese Tea Culture: The Perpetuation of Traditional Culture]. Wabi: Chanoyu kenkyû 4 (2007).
- “Tea Taste: Patronage and Collaboration among Tea Masters and Potters in Early Modern Japan.” Early Modern Japan: An Interdisciplinary Journal. Fall-Winter, 2004.
- “Kinsei ni okeru Rakuyaki dentō no keisei” [The Structure of Tradition in Early Modern Raku Ceramics]. Nomura Bijutsukan kiyō (Spring, 2000).