Marnie S. Anderson specializes in the social and political history of modern Japan with an emphasis on gender history. Anderson’s most recent book, In Close Association: Local Activist Networks in the Making of Japanese Modernity, 1868–1920 was published by Harvard University Asia Center in 2022. She is also the author of A Place in Public: Women's Rights in Meiji Japan (2011), and her articles have appeared in Japanese Studies, the Journal of Women’s History, and the U.S.-Japan Women’s Journal. “From Status to Gender in Meiji Japan” for The New Cambridge History of Japan (vol. 3: Modern Japan), ed. Laura Hein is forthcoming in 2023. Her current research investigates the rise of conservative women’s activism in Japan.

Selected Publications & Media

Listen to "The Meiji at 150 Podcast" (Episode 23): Tristan Grunow (UBC) in conversation with Marnie Anderson.

“From Status to Gender in Meiji Japan.” In The New Cambridge History of Japan, vol. 3, ed. Laura Hein, 463-484. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023.

In Close Association: Local Activist Networks in the Making of Modern Japan, 1868-1920. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2022.

“From Concubine to Activist and ‘Anonymous Founder’: The Role of Networks in Sumiya Koume’s Life.” In Women and Networks in Nineteenth-Century Japan, edited by Bettina Gramlich-Oka, Anne Walthall, Sugano Noriko, and Miyazaki Fumiko, 201-220. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2020.

“The Forgotten History of Japanese Women’s History and the Rise of Women and Gender History in the Academy.” Journal of Women’s History, Vol. 32, No. 1 (2020): 62-84.

“Critiquing Concubinage: Sumiya Koume (1850-1920) and Changing Gender Roles in Modern Japan.” Japanese Studies, Vol. 37, No. 3 (2017): 311-329.

“Women and Political Life in Meiji Japan: The Case of the Okayama joshi konshinkai (Okayama Women’s Friendship Society).” U.S.-Japan Women's Journal, No. 44 (2013): 43-66.

“Women’s Agency and the Historical Record: Reflections on Female Activists in Nineteenth-Century Japan.” Journal of Women’s History, Vol. 23, No. 1 (March 2011): 38-55.

A Place in Public: Women’s Rights in Meiji Japan. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2011.

“Kishida Toshiko and the Rise of the Female Speaker in Meiji Japan.” U.S.-Japan Women’s Journal, No. 31 (December 2006): 36-59.

“Gender and Sexuality in Japan” (with Hitomi Tonomura). In Teaching About Japan in Japan, edited by Richard Bowring and Noel Pinnington, 91-139. Fukuoka: Kyushu University Press, 2001.