The Woods Institute is now part of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
Ariel Stilerman
Ariel Stilerman
Affiliate
Assistant Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures
My research examines the transformation of courtly literary and artistic practices into broader cultural forces across diverse social spaces.
My first book in English, Court Poetry and the Culture of Learning in Japan (Harvard Asia Center, 2025), traces the evolution of waka poetry as it embraced a wider base of practitioners. Initially the purview of the aristocracy, waka gradually engaged military and priestly elites, then lower-ranking monks and warriors, and eventually urban merchants. As waka became a shared cultural language, its form and content were reshaped to reflect new social priorities. When its significance waned amid the cultural reforms of the 19th century, the tea ceremony evolved to assume its role as a gateway into traditional culture.
My second project, Meet the People Who Built Japan: The Culture of Work in Early Medieval Japanese Literature, explores discourses on technology, community, and affect in connection to the lives of working people. It examines poems in which aristocrats imagine themselves as workers, illustrated tales that bring crafting communities to life, and long-form narratives that reframe violence as a professional pursuit.
My broader interests include the tea ceremony, psychoanalysis, design, and critical making.
I welcome proposals on classical, medieval, and early modern literature and culture through the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, as well as transdisciplinary projects through the Program in Modern Thought and Literature.
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Investigador, traductor y docente en literatura japonesa. Máster en estudios japoneses por la Escuela de Estudios Orientales y Africanos (Universidad de Londres) y en literatura clásica japonesa por la Universidad de Waseda, y doctor en literatura japonesa por la Universidad de Columbia. También egresado del programa del arte del té Urasenke Midorikai (Kioto).
Docente en las universidades de Columbia, del Estado de Florida y, actualmente, de Stanford. Miembro del comité académico del Instituto Superior de Estudios Japoneses de Buenos Aires.
Cada año, su seminario de literatura japonesa premoderna ofrece a los estudiantes de maestría y de doctorado entrenamiento en japonés clásico, sino-japonés y paleografía. Cursos para estudiantes de grado incluyen Belleza y Renunciamiento (sobre literatura clásica, con docentes de Medio Oriente, Europa e India), Objetos Funcionales Japoneses (tecnología y estética, con docentes de Ingeniería Mecánica y Física), y La Cultura del Té en Japón.
My first book in English, Court Poetry and the Culture of Learning in Japan (Harvard Asia Center, 2025), traces the evolution of waka poetry as it embraced a wider base of practitioners. Initially the purview of the aristocracy, waka gradually engaged military and priestly elites, then lower-ranking monks and warriors, and eventually urban merchants. As waka became a shared cultural language, its form and content were reshaped to reflect new social priorities. When its significance waned amid the cultural reforms of the 19th century, the tea ceremony evolved to assume its role as a gateway into traditional culture.
My second project, Meet the People Who Built Japan: The Culture of Work in Early Medieval Japanese Literature, explores discourses on technology, community, and affect in connection to the lives of working people. It examines poems in which aristocrats imagine themselves as workers, illustrated tales that bring crafting communities to life, and long-form narratives that reframe violence as a professional pursuit.
My broader interests include the tea ceremony, psychoanalysis, design, and critical making.
I welcome proposals on classical, medieval, and early modern literature and culture through the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, as well as transdisciplinary projects through the Program in Modern Thought and Literature.
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Investigador, traductor y docente en literatura japonesa. Máster en estudios japoneses por la Escuela de Estudios Orientales y Africanos (Universidad de Londres) y en literatura clásica japonesa por la Universidad de Waseda, y doctor en literatura japonesa por la Universidad de Columbia. También egresado del programa del arte del té Urasenke Midorikai (Kioto).
Docente en las universidades de Columbia, del Estado de Florida y, actualmente, de Stanford. Miembro del comité académico del Instituto Superior de Estudios Japoneses de Buenos Aires.
Cada año, su seminario de literatura japonesa premoderna ofrece a los estudiantes de maestría y de doctorado entrenamiento en japonés clásico, sino-japonés y paleografía. Cursos para estudiantes de grado incluyen Belleza y Renunciamiento (sobre literatura clásica, con docentes de Medio Oriente, Europa e India), Objetos Funcionales Japoneses (tecnología y estética, con docentes de Ingeniería Mecánica y Física), y La Cultura del Té en Japón.
