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Kjell Ericson

@kjelldericson.bsky.social
267 followers 249 following 160 posts

Historian teaching and researching at intersections of environment, technology, and Japan @ Kyoto University.

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Reposted by Kjell Ericson
Konrad Lawson @kml.muninn.net · 11h
Statistical charts I've looked at in old Japanese sources really love scaled pictorial charts. I can't remember which source I found this from, but here we have 1935 global coffee consumption leaders. Sweden (7.75kg, I assume per year), Norway (6.95kg), and Denmark (6.9kg) in the lead.
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Oleg Benesch @olegb.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
I just saw that this book on the Japanese invasions of Korea in the 1590s has been published fully open access, with contributions from many top scholars in the field. I look forward to reading! brill.com/display/titl...
brill.com
The Aftermath of the Imjin War in Early Modern East Asia
"The Aftermath of the Imjin War in Early Modern East Asia" published on 29 Sep 2026 by Brill.
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Dolly Jørgensen @dollyjorgensen.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Exciting job for #envhum postdocs! Project "Tolerating Urban Animals. Techno-moral perspectives on killing and caring for other species" (U Copenhagen) is looking for 2 postdocs to work on use of technologies for managing undomesticated/feral urban animals in 🇩🇰🇸🇪🇳🇴. employment.ku.dk/faculty/?sho...
employment.ku.dk
Two Postdoctoral positions in Ethnology at the Saxo Institute, Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Just got an email from a former student who took my class a decade ago, asking me for the reading list because she enjoyed the course so much and wants to revisit the texts. And she *apologized* for making the request. Are you kidding me?
static.klipy.com
Sad Old Man Crying
ALT: Sad Old Man Crying
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Kjell Ericson @kjelldericson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Perhaps unsurprising to those who know my interests, but I'm always intrigued when oysters 🦪🦪 🦪 make an appearance in historical research.
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Kjell Ericson @kjelldericson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This stuck out to me on my last trip to Busan: a fantastically illustrated 1962 poster from the South Korean central fisheries experiment station asking ordinary fishers to send in any tagged horse mackerel, mackerel, or squid specimens they managed to catch.
Poster with illustrations of a tagged mackerel, horse mackerel, and squid.
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Amy Stanley @astanley711.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Excited to be working with Norton on two new histories of Japan! I have my work cut out for me for approximately the next decade!!
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Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes @lemoustier.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
🏺 🗃️ Archaeologists/Historians - please shoot me your favourite examples & sources on ancient named animals, the older the better! Prefer farm animals but others also welcome 🐏 🐂 🐖 🫏... 🐕 #histsky (I already have Bramati 2025, & Alivernini & Bramanti 2023)
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Amanda Lanzillo @amandazillo.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Please send your brilliant Tamil instructors our way! networks.h-net.org/jobs/70482/u...
networks.h-net.org
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University of Washington Press @uwapress.uw.edu · 29/09/2026
Calling all early-career professionals interested in scholarly publishing! We are now accepting applications for an Acquisitions Fellow. This 12-month entry-level role offers hands-on experience evaluating, developing, and acquiring manuscripts. Apply by October 15, 2026: bit.ly/uwapressfellowship
Applications are now open for the Acquisitions Fellowship at the University of Washington Press. Applications due October 15, 2026. Learn more and apply at bit.ly/uwapressfellowship
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Royal Society Publishing @royalsocietypublishing.org · 27/09/2026
This #NotesandRecords special issue demonstrates the complexity of plant studies, as early modern scholars conceived plants not only as a subject of botanical studies, but also as a laboratory object that mediates the study of nature: royalsocietypublishing.org/rsnr/issue/7... #HistSci #HistSTM
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Kjell Ericson @kjelldericson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Those precious moments on the final day of NHK's sumo coverage when they play the synthed-up and riff-filled ending theme song. youtu.be/V6uFeYm-llA
youtu.be
THE千秋楽 (大相撲中継エンディングテーマ)
YouTube video by HAKONE SPIRIT 2
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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
2yrs after I finished my MA History at Goldsmiths, my research rights were bought and I was hired to work as historical consultant on this TV show. It's had BAFTA and International Emmy nominations. I got a book deal, too. Goldsmiths: "No point in MA History, let's fire everyone and delete it."
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CedarBough T. Saeji @thekpopprof.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Anth of Asia job for a non-Korean at SNU Anthropology. Check it out. Deadline is normally this short. Poor advertising is normal in Korea. There is no inside candidate, I know this department well, if you have the qualifications you'll have a fair shot. www.anthropology.or.kr/04_notice/no...
anthropology.or.kr
서울대학교 사회과학대학 인류학과
글작성시 입력했던 비밀번호를 입력해주세요.
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Nick Kapur @nickkapur.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Japanese used bookstores are reporting a massive uptick in bulk purchases of used Japanese books by overseas buyers, seemingly without any regard to their contents. The only logical conclusion is that these books are being stripped, scanned, and discarded to train AI models.
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The Historical Journal @historicaljnl.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
📣Out now on #firstview! Jeremy Schneider @cornelluniversity.bsky.social and Siyakha Mguni (University of Cape Town) on 'Should the Lithosphere Tell Our Stories?' #Earth #Fossils #Culture #Knowledge #Indigenous #Western #Ancient 🌍🏔️🗃️ 👉Read open access here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
This discussion pursues potential areas of epistemic productivity at the convergence of Western scientific frameworks and Indigenous knowledge systems to understand the ontological unity of natural systems, interpreting the lithosphere not merely as a physical substrate, but as a deep archive of human histories, cultural practices, and cosmologies in all the world’s regions. By de-fossilizing knowledge – a useful analytical concept that allows the discovery of potential conjunction of scientific thought and robust forms of knowing from ancient cultures – we foreground relational epistemes and explorative narrative possibilities inherent in ancient human landscapes. The selected cases, though brief and not exhaustive, support our view that there are strong resonances between Western science and ancient knowledge forms seen among Indigenous cultures in the world.
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Kjell Ericson @kjelldericson.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I normally drink my coffee black, but I make an exception for a tiny metal pitcher of milk.
A cup of coffee in a saucer with spoon and tiny metal pitcher of milk.
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Mountain Stories, Mountain Futures @futuremountain.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
CFP: Towards a Posthumanistic Mountain Humanities, Online Workshop 11 December 2026. shorturl.at/wnsS8 #Mountains #EnvHist #EnvHums #HistGeog #IndigenousKnowledge #AnimalHist #NewAnimism #NewMaterialism #AssemblageTheory #Posthumanism
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David Fedman @dfeds.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
ten more days to apply -- please spread the word!
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David Fedman @dfeds.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Hi friends, happy to share a labor of love: an essay in the latest issue of Environmental History on Tokyo's war-damaged trees (戦災樹木), the more than 200 hundreds trees scattered across the city that carry scars of wartime bombing in their morphology www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/eh/0/0
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Kjell Ericson @kjelldericson.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Today's treat: Kyoto-style white miso kakigōri, topped with caramelized nuts and hiding jellied squares of ginger kanten.
Kakigōri shaved ice topped with white miso and caramelized nuts
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Kjell Ericson @kjelldericson.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
The Sendai Mediatheque, which houses a huge array of materials related to the 3.11 triple disaster, along with the Sendai City Library. A really fascinating space.
Exterior of the Sendai MediathequeLobby area of the Sendai Mediatheque
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Kjell Ericson @kjelldericson.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The Miyagi Prefectural Library and Archives, housed in a building that alternates between airy views of the surrounding greenery and one of the longest spacecraft-style corridors I've ever experienced.
In the Miyagi Prefectural Library and Archives, looking out through huge glass windows to the trees just outside.Walking down the corridor of the Nostromo, er, Miyagi Prefectural Library and Archives.
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Micah Muscolino @mmuscolino.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Preorder now. You cannot get such an expertly crafted and researched history of empire, ethnicity, and the environment anywhere else.
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Kjell Ericson @kjelldericson.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Bust of Lu Xun on the Tohoku University Katahira Campus, the site where he studied medicine in Sendai from 1904 to 1906.
Bust of Lu Xun
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Kjell Ericson @kjelldericson.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Great visit to the Miyagi Prefecture fisheries technology center. Here are some flounder being cultivated under green lights that, I'm told, cause them to eat more.
Flounder in a tank with a green light above them Flounder in a tank with a green light above them
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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The fallacy that University leaders pushing AI are falling into is thinking that the point of undergraduate research is to find things out. It isn't. What students find out is typically already generally known. The point of undergraduate research is to learn how to find things out.
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mulboyne.bsky.social @mulboyne.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Demolition work has started on Jinnan Elementary School, in the middle of Shibuya. It will be rebuilt, along with a 140m high-rise. The site, and the school, have some history. www.shibukei.com/headline/201...
Jinnan Elementary SchoolThe track at Jinnan Elementary School has been removed. The school building stands at the back.
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Kjell Ericson @kjelldericson.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
On my way back to Sendai, so I'm looking for new things to try in between trips to libraries, oyster farms, and fisheries laboratories. I've decided to look out for Umi-no-Kura 海ノ蔵 ("Ocean Cellar"), the barnacle-encrusted Ishinomaki sake that spends at least ten weeks underwater below 25 meters.
A barnacle-covered bottle of Umi-no-Kura sake.
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Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Spectacular Roman octopus mosaic from the floor of the women’s changing room at the Central Baths in ancient Herculaneum. 📷 by me #MosaicMonday #Archaeology
My photo shows a monochrome Roman floor mosaic depicting an octopus. The octopus is composed of small black tesserae (tiles) and has eight writhing arms with suckers and narrow curling tips. It is set against a white tesserae background. This octopus detail comes from a monochrome marine mosaic featuring Triton with a cherub and various sea creatures which include the octopus, dolphins and a cuttlefish. From the floor of the women's changing room at the Central Baths in Herculaneum.
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Emily Pawley @emilypawley.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
We have a book cover!
Cover for book "A Historian's Handbook for Saving the World: Responding to the Global Climate Emergency" edited by Alexandra Hui and Emily Pawley.
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DIJ Tokyo @dijtokyo.org · 11/09/2026
International Symposium "Entangled Trajectories of Modernization: Medicine, Science, and Technology in Transwar East Asia" 📍 @ DIJ Tokyo & online 🗓️ 17-18 Sept 2026 ℹ️ Programme & registration details www.dijtokyo.org/event/entang... Supported by Toshiba International Foundation & DWIH Tokyo (1/2)
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Kjell Ericson @kjelldericson.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Sadly, our box of gigantic Shida pears (nashi) from Shizuoka is down to the last one.
A box of Shida pears (nashi)
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Nick Kapur @nickkapur.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
The Japanese translation of my book has a cover! Coming this October from @misuzu_shobo
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Steve Haddock @stevehaddock.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
One year ago, The Radiant Sea appeared in print! Still super happy with how it turned out. Our mission to share a different view of ocean life seems to have succeeded.💙 Named a top ten photography book of 2025 by @smithsonianmag.bsky.social, and many anecdotes from people who appreciated it. 🙏 🌊🧪🦑
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Pau Pitarch @paupitarch.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Open access book _Modern Japanese Literary Studies_ (University of Michigan Press, 2026) Edited by Seth Jacobowitz and Jonathan E. Abel
fulcrum.org
Modern Japanese Literary Studies
<P><I>Modern Japanese Literary Studies</I> brings together a broad range of interdisciplinary and institutional perspectives on the state of the field and presses for overdue recognition that Japanese...
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Emily Horner @emilyhorner.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
One of the things I talk about, when I talk about AI info literacy, is that the skills students need now are very old-fashioned skills: how to evaluate information; how to evaluate things like author, purpose, and bias.
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Dr. Peter Paul Rubens @peterpaulrubens.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Truly spectacular collection of shells, carefully arranged around blood-red coral by 17th-century French painter Jacques Linard in 1640. Today is his day.
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Jolyon Thomas @jolyonbt.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
On students, primary sources, and the evident interpretive dangers LLMs pose: www.hnn.us/article/ai-i...
hnn.us
AI Is an Anti-Primary Source Machine
Real voices from the past are threatened by chatbots designed to amplify — and ultimately become — the loudest voices in the room.
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Ben Gross @bhgross144.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
A shocking moment in the history of American science... (Also personally devastating: The Academy was my childhood natural history museum!) #histsci #histSTM #museums
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Modern Japan History Association @modernjapanhist.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Mark your calendars!!! Jordan Sand (Georgetown) will give the Modern Japan History Association's 2026 Distinguished Annual Lecture, "The Stuff of Japanese History: Materialist Approaches," on Thursday, Oct. 8 (Oct. 9 in Japan). REGISTER FOR ZOOM HERE: mjha.org/event-6695701
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NiCHE Canada @nichecanada.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
"The idea that (un)sustainability has as much to do with equity as it does ecology, biology, and economics may indeed be gaining momentum. " - @jjsilvs.bsky.social niche-canada.org/2020/08/25/t... #envhist #cdnhist #bchistory #coastalhistory #fisheries
niche-canada.org
Troubling the License: Fisheries Enclosure Off of British Columbia, 1969–1999
In May 2019, the Canadian Parliamentary Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans released findings from a study on the West Coast Fisheries. There have been many, many Federal studies about commerci...
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The Japan Times @japantimes.co.jp · 31/08/2026
In a childhood divided between Japan and Nepal, books — in multiple languages — were a constant for Aditi Paudel. Now the 17-year-old is Japan's first literacy ambassador. 👉 ebx.sh/rbrPba
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Harry Croft @harrycroft.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Wow, isn't this the best lineup you've ever seen?! Don't be jealous! The programme for our workshop, "Hideous, Invasive, Forgotten: Theorising Uncharismatic Species in Environmental History", is now live! Get in touch if you'd like to take part, I'll be very happy to share participation details
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Kjell Ericson @kjelldericson.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Simultaneously charmingly and alarmingly narrow building in Zeze, Shiga.
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Ruth Morgan @ruthamorgan.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Working in the environmental humanities? If you have a fresh take on new approaches/concepts/methods/sources - plz pitch to the Approaches section in OUP's new initiative, Environmental Change & Human Experience (led by maestros Georgina Endfield & Poul Holm academic.oup.com/oxford-inter...
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Kjell Ericson @kjelldericson.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Neither freshwater nor (fin)fish made much of an appearance in my hour-ish talk, but that didn't stop me from having a great discussion with freshwater fisheries scholars at the Lake Biwa Museum yesterday.
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McGill-Queen's University Press @mcgillqueensup.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
We've got a book for that! Interested in reading the real story of Lake Ontario? Daniel Macfarlane, associate professor at Western Michigan University, has written the authoritative history of the use and abuse of Lake Ontario. Read it now! #LakeOntario #researchthatmatters buff.ly/woiwybh
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Kjell Ericson @kjelldericson.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
My first taste of heavily fermented, lactic acid-laced funazushi along the shores of Lake Biwa. I agree with the common description of soft, sour cheese. I'd only add that the chewy outer body reminded me of a cross between calamari and a ring gummy candy. In short: not bad, and I'd do it again.
A plate of funazushi with four slices. The menu lists three slices for 1,500 yen, but we got an extra one thrown in.
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