Katsuya Hirano

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Katsuya Hirano

Katsuya Hirano

Professor

Email: hirano@history.ucla.edu

Office: 5238 Bunche Hall

Phone: 310-825-1235

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Biography

Katsuya Hirano’s teaching and research explore the intersection between history and critical theory with a focus on questions of ideology, political economy, and subject/subjectivity.

Hirano’s first book, The Politics of Dialogic Imagination: Power and Popular Culture in Early Modern Japan, (Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 2013, https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo16552114.html) examines the transformation in modes of subject-formation and politics from early modern to modern Japan. It’s been translated into Japanese and published as Edo Yumin no Joran from Iwanami Shoten (2021) (https://www.iwanami.co.jp/book/b587791.html). It is also forthcoming in Chinese translation from Shanghai People’s Publishing House. His current project examines the intersection of capitalism and racism, which came together to make a modern Japanese imperial nation and its first colony. The project explores the relation between the state’s drive for primitive accumulation and the construction and implementation of racial categories through linguistic, economic and cultural analysis of the settler-colonization of the Ainu land. The goal of the project is to deepen our understanding of the history of Ainu experiences through the perspectives of global histories of empire, capitalism, and settler colonialism. Furthermore, Hirano is co-editing a translation volume with Professor Gavin Walker, titled The Archive of Revolution: Marxist Historiography in Modern Japan. This volume will be the first major introduction to the rich yet long neglected Japanese Marxist historiography, which played the decisive role in the formation of critical social science in modern Japan from the late 1920s to the 1970s. Lastly, Hirano has been conducting a series of interviews with the people who have been involved in the anti-nuclear, pro-democracy, and environmental movements since the Fukushima nuclear disaster of March 11, 2011. Some interviews have been published in English in The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus (https://apjjf.org/-Katsuya-HIRANO).

Hirano received a BA in political theory from Doshisha University (Japan), an MA in cultural studies/international studies from the University of Birmingham (UK), and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago (USA). Before joining UCLA in 2013, he previously served as a member of the history department at Cornell University. At UCLA, Hirano is affiliated with the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History, the Asia-Pacific Center, Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies, and the Luskin Center for History and Policy, respectively. Hirano is an associate editor of positions: asia critique (Duke U Press) (https://read.dukeupress.edu/positions). He is also an editorial member of an online forum positions politics (https://positionspolitics.org/) and MFE, a Japanese-Korean language online journal. He co-organizes the annual Trans-Pacific Workshop with colleagues from the United States and Japan.

Field of Study

Early Modern and Modern Japan, (Settler) Colonialism, Racial Capitalism, Nuclear Politics, Critical Theory

Publications

Books

  • Co-authored with Junichi Isomae, Naoki Sakai, and Wang Hui: Sekai wa Fusei ni Michiteiru: Kaiso, Byodo, soshite Aratana-jinbunchi (世界は不正に満ちている　ー　階層、平等、新たな人文知/The World is Filled with Injustice – Hierarchies, Equality, a New Horizon of Humanistic Knowledge)  (Tokyo: Hosei University Press, 2025).
  • Genpatsu to Minshushugi – Hoshano Osen Soshite Kokusaku to Tatakau Hitobito (『原発と民主主義　ー　「放射能汚染」そして「国策」と闘う人々』/Nuclear energy and democracy: Radioactive Contamination and the People Who Fight the State’s Nuclear Policy) (Osaka: Kaiho Shuppan Sha (解放出版社), 2024)
  • The Politics of Dialogic Imagination: Power and Popular Culture in Early Modern Japan (Chicago: U of Chicago Press, Chicago Studies in Practices of Meaning series, 2013).
  • Edo Yūmin no Jōran (『江戸遊民の擾乱』), the Japanese translation of The Politics of Dialogic Imagination by Tetsuya Motohashi (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten (岩波書店), 2021).
  • Settler Colonial Dispossession – Race, Capital, and Sovereignty in the Making of Japan’s Hokkaido (under contract with University of California Press) (The Japanese version will be published by Iwanami Shoten/岩波書店, Tokyo, under the title Bunmeika to Iyu Yaban – Hokkaido Settler Colonialism/文明化という野蛮　ー　北海道セトラーコロニアリズム)
  • Edited volume: The Archive of Revolution: Marxist Historiography in Modern Japan, 1930s-1980s. (co-edited with Gavin Walker) (under consideration).

Book Chapters & Articles

  • 「パレスチナ連帯運動と米国の大学の危機　ー　UCLAからの報告」（”Palestine Solidarity Movements and the Crisis of the US Universities: A Report from UCLA”) in Buraku Kaiho Undo September Issue (Osaka: Kaiho Shuppansha, 2024)
  • Book Chapter: “The Foundational Violence of Sovereignty: The Racist Logic of “Rescuing” the Ainu” in Kiyonobu Date and Jean-François Laniel eds., A New Approach to Global Studies from the Perspective of Small Nations (London: Routledge, forthcoming in 2023) (Invited)
  • Journal Article (in Japanese): 「市民社会の「隠れ屋」ー人種主義的認識が作動・反復する時」in『現代思想2023年9月臨時増刊号＝関東大震災100年』(青土社、2023) (“A Hidden Abode of the Civil Society – When a Racist Episteme Works/Repeats” in Special Issue on The 100th Anniversary of the Great Kanto Earthquake, Contemporary Thought, Tokyo: Seidosha, 2023)　（Invited)
  • Book Chapter (in Japanese): 「新しい歴史学（グローバルヒストリー）と「論争」の死角　ー　抹消される外部」in 長原豊、ギャヴィン・ウォーカー編　『「論争」の文体　ー　日本資本主義と統治装置』（法政大学出版局、２０２３）（A New Global History and A Blind Spot in the Debate on Japanese Capitalism　ー　On the Elimination of the Outside, Yutaka Nagahara and Gavin Walker eds., Hosei University Press, 2023)
  • Book Chapter: “Settler Colonialism as Encounter – On the Question of Racialization and Labor Power in the Dispossession of Ainu Lands”in Akio Tanabe, and Yasuko Takezawa eds., Migration and Race in the Trans-Pacific (Routledge, 2022). (A revised English version of ”遭遇としての植民地主義：北海道開拓における人種化と労働力の問題をめぐって,” 2020.)
  • Journal Article (in Japanese): “主権と無主地　ー　北海道セトラーコロニアリズム” 『思想 12月号』(岩波書店, 2022) (“Sovereignty and Terra Nullius – Hokkaido Settler-Colonialism,” Thought December Issue, Tokyo: Iwanami, 2022)
  • Book Chapter: “Settler colonialism, Ecology, and Expropriation of Ainu Mosir: A Transnational Perspective” in Edward Melillo and Ryan Jones eds., Migrant Ecologies: Environmental Histories of the Pacific World. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, forthcoming in 2021).
  • Book Chapter (in Japanese): “主権と「天皇の赤子」ーアイヌの「救済」という人種差別の論理,”  上村静、関口寛、寺戸淳子編『差別の構造と国民国家――宗教と公共性――』(法蔵館, 2020)　( “Sovereignty and ‘Emperor’s Children’ – Saving Ainu as a Logic of Racial Discrimination” in Kamimura Shizuka, Skiguchi Hiroshi, Terado Junko eds., Structure of Discrimination and Nation-State: Religion and the Public, (Kyoto: Hōzō Publishing House, forthcoming in 2021) (Invited).
  • Journal Article (in Japanese): 「近代の蹉跌ともう一つの啓蒙という物語——ポスト・ポストコロニアルな思索へ」in 『アリーナ No. 23』(中部大学, 2020)(“Predicament of Modernity and Alternative Enlightenment – Towards Post-Postcolonial Thought” in Arena no. 23, Chubu University, Dec. 2020) (reviewed).
  • Journal Article (in Japanese): 「グローバルヒストリーと史的唯物論の新たな射程」in 『アリーナ No. 23』(中部大学, 2020) (“Global History and A New Horizon of Historical Materialism” in Arena no. 23, Chubu University, Dec. 2020)(reviewed).
  • Online Journal: editor of COVID-19 Pandemic in positions politics (http://positionswebsite.org/episteme-2/) & author of “COVID-19, or the Rude Awakening of Biopolitical and Necropolitical Power under Capitalism?”  (http://positionswebsite.org/episteme-2-hirano/) (May, 2020).
  • Book Chapter (in Korean): “근대의 차질과 계몽이라는 이야기　-　근세 ‘실학’의 해석을 중심으로” (“The Predicament of Modernity and Histories of the Tokugawa ‘Enlightenment’: On the Interpretations of Practical Learning”) in 『일본자본주의의 정신사 』(The Intellectual History of Japanese Capitalism) 日本学国際比較研究所叢書 (Seoul: Hanyang University, 2020) (Invited).
  • Book Chapter (in Japanese): “遭遇としての植民地主義：北海道開拓における人種化と労働力の問題をめぐって” 成田龍一、田辺明生、竹沢泰子編『環太平洋地域の移動と人種』(京都大学出版会、2020）(“Colonialism as Encounter: On Racialization and Labor Power in the Settler-Colonization of Hokkaido” in Ryuichi Narita, Akio Tanabe, and Yasuko Takezawa eds., Migration and Race in the Trans-Pacific Region, Kyoto University Press. 2020) (invited).
  • Journal Article: “Terra Nullius and the Modern Settler-Colonization of Ainu Mosir” in Tristan Grunow and Fuyubi Nakamura eds., Hokkaidō 150: Settler Colonialism and Indigeneity in Modern Japan and Beyond in Critical Asian Studies (London: Taylor and Francis, 2019) (refereed).
  • Book Chapter: “Regulating Excess: Cultural Politics of Consumption in Tokugawa Japan” in Giorgio Riello and Ulinka Rublack eds, The Right to Dress: Sumptuary Laws in a Global Perspective c. 1200-1800 (London: Cambridge University Press, 2019) (Invited).
  • Web Article (in Japanese): 「3.11を心に刻んで」(Remembering 3.11）in 岩波書店 (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, August 2018) https://tanemaki.iwanami.co.jp/posts/1093 (Invited). Republished in 『3.11を心に刻んで　2019』岩波書店編集部編 (Remembering 3.11, 2019  Iwanami Editorial Team, ed., Iwanami Shoten, 2019).
  • Journal Article (in Japanese): “「明治維新」を内破するヘテログロシア ー　アイヌの経験と言葉” (“Heteroglossia and the Implosion of the ‘Meiji Ishin’ – Ainu’s Experiences and Language”) in 『現代思想　臨時増刊号  総特集 = 明治維新の光と影 — 150年目の問い』 (Special Issue on The 150th Anniversary of the Meiji Ishin, Contemporary Thought) (Tokyo: Seidosha 青土社, May 2018) (Invited).
  • Online Article: “On the Reproduction of Race, Capitalism, and Settler-colonialism, Response 2” for Race and Capitalism: Global Territories, Transnational Histories, Center for Inequality and Democracy (LA: UCLA, April, 2018) (Invited) “Race and Capitalism: Global Territories, Transnational Histories” Digital Volume
  • Journal Article: co-authored with Lorenzo Veracini and Toulouse Roy, “Vanishing Natives and Taiwan’s Settler Colonial Unconsciousness” in Critical Asian Studies (London: Routledge, March 2018) (Refereed).
  • Reprinted in Shu-mei Shih and Lin-chin Tsai eds., Indigenous Knowledge in Taiwan and Beyond (Sinophone and Taiwan Studies, 1), (London: Springer, 2021) (Invited).
  • Journal Article (in Japanese): “ヘーゲルの亡霊と民衆史のアポリア ー 安丸歴史学の認識論的前提の問題をめぐって” 『現代思想　臨時増刊号　安丸良夫特集ー民衆思想史とはなにか』(“Hegelian Spector and Aporia of People’s History: On the Epistemological Premise of Yasumaru’s Historical Works” in Special Issue on Yoshio Yasumaru, Contemporary Thought  September Issue, Tokyo: Seidosha 青土社, 2016) (Invited).
  • Book Chapter: “Settler Colonialism in the Making of Japan’s Hokkaidō” in Routledge Handbook of the History of Settler Colonialism edited by Ed Cavanagh and Lorenzo Veracini (London: Routledge, August 2016) (refereed).
  • Journal article (in Japanese): “アイヌ­ = 「滅びゆく民族」と生存への祈り- コロニアルな翻訳” in 『みすず no. 651』 (みすず書房 2016)(an expanded and revised version of “The Politics of Colonial Translation: On the Narrative of the Ainu as a “Vanishing Ethnicity”) in Misuzu no. 651  (Tokyo: Misuzu shobo, 2016) (refereed).
  • Journal article: “Thanatopolitics in the Making of Japan’s Hokkaido: Settler Colonialism and Primitive Accumulation” in Critical Historical Studies vol. 2, no. 2 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015) (refereed).
  • Journal Article: “A Reflection on Uemura Takashi’s Talk at UCLA” in Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus (Ithaca NY: April, 2015) (Invited) www.japanfocus.org/-Katsuya-Hirano/4363/article.html
  • Book chapter (in Japanese): “訳者あとがき – 帝国と”帝国”のゆくえ” 『アメリカ＜帝国＞の現在　－　イデオロギーの守護者たち』(みすず書房 2014) (Afterword: The Future of Empire and “Empire” in Harry Harootunian, Empire’s New Clothes, Tokyo: Misuzu Shobo, 2014)
  • Journal Article (in Japanese): “カルチュラル・スタディーズの汚らしさ　－　ステュアート・ホールの政治”『思想 5月号』(岩波書店, 2014) (“Dirtiness of Cultural Studies – Stuart Hall’s Politics”  in Special Issue on Stuart Hall in Shiso May Issue, Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten）(Invited)
  • Book chapter: “The Dialectic of Laughter and Tosaka’s Critical Theory” in Ken Kawashima and Robert Stolz eds., Tosaka Jun: A Critical Reader (Ithaca: Cornell East Asia Series, 2014) (invited)
  •  Journal article: “Politics and Poetics of the Body in Early Modern Japan” in Modern Intellectual History Vol. 8. Issue 3 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, November, 2011) (refereed)
  • Journal article: “The Politics of Colonial Translation: On the Narrative of the Ainu as a “Vanishing Ethnicity”” in The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus (New York, 2009). (refereed).
  • Reprinted in The Japanese Empire: Colonial Lives and Postcolonial Struggles, Kirsten Ziomek ed., Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus Course Reader no. 8 (2013).
  • Journal article (in Japanese): “江戸の遊びと権力” 『みすず no.565』（みすず書房　2008）（On Play and Power in Late Tokugawa Edo) in Misuzu no.565（Tokyo: Misuzu Shobo, 2008）
  • Book chapter (in Japanese): “編訳者あとがき　―　現代の苦境を切り開く過去との対話” 『Doing 思想史』（みすず書房 2008) (“Afterword: Dialogue with the Past to Live Through the Predicament of Modernity” in Doing Intellectual History by Tetsuo Najita, Tokyo: Misuzu Shobo, 2008)
  • Book chapter: “Social Networks and Production of Public Discourse in Edo Popular Culture” in Elizabeth Lillehoj (ed.) Acquisition: Japanese Arts and Their Owners  (New York: Floating World Edition, 2007)

Translations

  • Journal article: “As we saw him: Masao Miyoshi and the Vocation of Critical Struggle” (「我ら見しままに」：マサオ・ミヨシと批判的戦いという使命) by Harry Harootunian in Misuzu (みすず) no. 663 & 664 (Tokyo: Misuzu Shobo, みすず書房, 2017)
  • Book: Translator of Empire’s New Clothes by Harry Harootunian (『アメリカ<帝国>の現在　－　イデオロギーの守護者たち』Tokyo: Misuzu Shobo, みすず書房,  2014)
  • Book: Editor and translator of 『Doing 思想史』( Doing Intellectual History) by Tetsuo Najita (Tokyo: Misuzu Shobo, みすず書房 2008)

Interviews on the 2011 Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

Interviews on Other Issues

Awards & Grants

  • Senior Research Fellow at International Center for Japanese Studies, Japan, 2022-2023
  • Guest Professor at Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University, 2021
  • Distinguished Teaching Award (the Distinction in Teaching at the Graduate Level), UCLA, 2019
  • Visiting Professor of Global Studies at Doshisha University, Japan, Fall 2015
  • Toyota Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan, 2008-2009

Graduate Students

  • Chul Namgung
  • Sung-Eun Kim (co-chair)
  • Ju-Hyun Kim
  • Hunter Wimpey