Rate My Professor Takashi Shogimen

Professor Takashi Shogimen is a Professor of History in the Department of History, School of Arts, Division of Humanities at the University of Otago, New Zealand, where he joined in 2004 as a Lecturer and advanced to Senior Lecturer (2007–2012), Associate Professor (2012–2015), and full Professor since 2015. He served as Head of the Department of History and Art History from 2015 to 2019 and Associate Dean (Research) in the Division of Humanities from 2013 to 2015. Prior to Otago, Shogimen was Research Fellow at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge (1997–2000) and Research Assistant on the British Academy's Medieval Texts Editorial Committee (1997–2001). His academic qualifications include a PhD from the University of Sheffield (1998) and an LLB from Keio University, Japan (1991). He holds Fellowships of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS, 2006) and Foreign Membership in the Academia Europaea (MAE, 2020), becoming the first New Zealand humanities academic elected to the latter. Shogimen has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Helsinki (2005), Keio University (2009), and the University of Naples “L’Orientale” (2024), and delivered the 2024 Conway Lecture at the Medieval Institute, University of Notre Dame.

A specialist in the history of political thought, Shogimen's research focuses on medieval European political thought (particularly William of Ockham), modern Japanese intellectual history (including Yanaihara Tadao), patriotism and nationalism, comparative political thought between medieval Europe and Tokugawa Japan, and linguistic theories of metaphors in intellectual history. Key publications include Ockham and Political Discourse in the Late Middle Ages (Cambridge University Press, 2007), Hangyakuzai: Kindai kokka seiritu no rimenshi [Treason: An unknown history of the making of the modern state] (Iwanami Shoten, 2024), Rethinking Medieval and Renaissance Political Thought: Historiographical Problems, Fresh Interpretations, New Debates (co-edited with C. Jones, Routledge, 2023), "Rethinking Heresy as a Category of Analysis" (Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 2020), and "On the Elusiveness of Context" (History & Theory, 2016). His awards encompass the 35th Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities (History and Civilization Section, 2013), Marsden Grants from the Royal Society of New Zealand (2006–2007; 2008–2010), and the University of Otago Early Career Award for Distinction in Research (2006). Shogimen serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Religious History and the editorial advisory board of Nihon Kenkyu, and supervises research in political thought in Europe 1150–1650, medieval European history, modern Japanese intellectual history, and patriotism.