Research Focus
Kristin Roebuck is an historian of modern Japan whose research interests encompass the history of the body; race, gender, and eugenics; medicine and law; family and childhood; trafficking and enslavement; and war and international relations.
Publications
Scholarship
Japan Reborn: Race and Eugenics from War and Empire to US Alliance. Forthcoming, Columbia University Press.
"Science without Borders? War, Empire, and the Contested Science of 'Race Mixing' in Japan, East Asia, and the West." In Who Is the Asianist? The Politics of Representation in Asian Studies, eds. Will Bridges, Nitasha Tamar Sharma, and Marvin D. Sterling (New York: Columbia University Press, 2022).
“De-Provincializing Eugenics: The Persistence of ‘Race Hygiene’ in Japan after Its Decline in the West.” In Asia and Africa across Disciplinary and National Lines (Tokyo: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies Press, 2015).
Mass Media
"Princess Mako of Japan's Commoner Wedding Suggests Sexism Will Doom the Royal Family." NBC News (31 Oct. 2021).
"Akihito Bows Out, Ushering in New Era for Japan's Post-War Generation." The Hill (30 April 2019).
"Japan, U.S. Face Legacies of Forced Sterilization." Global Journalist, National Public Radio (25 Oct. 2018).
In the news
- Cornell Center for Social Sciences names 14 faculty fellows
- History department begins three-year active learning initiative
- Migrations grants fund worldwide interdisciplinary projects
- Princess Mako of Japan's commoner wedding suggests sexism will doom the royal family
- Japan’s imperial laws may doom the royal family
- Seymour lecture focuses on Japan’s Olympic history
- Grants advance social sciences research, collaboration
- Seven projects awarded 2018 digitization grants