My research is focused on Japanese local history, but it’s on a region that has (and which is not unique in having) strong international ties through migration. I’m not doing (yet) strongly “transnational” history, but there’s no question that I’m trying to expand the view of Japanese history to include these international ties as unexceptional features of modernity.

And, for what it’s worth, most of the books I’ve been asked to review have been what would normally be considered Asian-American history, and it is heartwarming to see Japanese language materials and an increasingly sophistcated view of Japanese history/anthropology/sociology informing these studies. There’s not enough of that, yet, but it’s definitely progess.

It’s true, I’ve been known to slip a bit of jargon into an abstract, but never to alter the nature of the research: I think the jargon, in this case, really does point to a sea change in both fields.