Professor Emeritus Herman Ooms Passes Away

We are sad to announce that Herman Ooms, Professor Emeritus in the Department of History, passed away last week on December 14. He was an active member of our department from 1987 until he retired in 2012. Herman was educated in Belgium, where he majored in Classics and earned an MA in Philosophy; in Japan, where he earned an MA at Tokyo University in the Anthropology of Religion; and at the University of Chicago, where he received a PhD in Japanese History. His research and teaching focused on pre-modern and early modern (Tokugawa) Japanese History and Cultural Theory.  In his research and teaching, he combined anthropological approaches, intellectual history and critical theory. His publications include Tokugawa Ideology: Early Constructs, 1570-1680 (Princeton University Press, 1985), Tokugawa Village Practice: Class, Status, Power, Law (California University Press, 1996), Imperial Politics and Symbolics in Ancient Japan: The Tenmu Dynasty, 650-800 (University of Hawai’i Press, 2009).

A more comprehensive obituary will be forthcoming.