Jason Butters

Field: Modern Japanese History
Advisor: Paul Kreitman, Susan Pedersen
Email: jgb2157@columbia.edu

Jason Butters is a History-East Asia Ph.D. candidate researching transregional intellectual and
cultural exchange through imperial Japan. Broadly defined, his interests include cultural
exchange and cultural relations across the twentieth-century world; the international history of
states’ uses of culture for power; the relationship between liberal internationalism, cultural
nationalism, and state power; and imperial Japan and Tokyo as centres of global flows of
peoples, ideas, and things. Jason’s dissertation traces the use of culture and cultural relations for
state power and imperialism in early-twentieth-century Japan and beyond, illuminating the
interconnectedness of internationalism, cultural nationalism, and state power. These subjects
reflect his interest in social, cultural, and intellectual historical methods, diverse sources, and
theories of power and culture.
Before arriving at Columbia, Jason completed a BA and MA (history) at Concordia University
(Montréal, ’14 and ‘16) and an MA from Kobe University’s Graduate School of Law (‘20). He
was born outside of Vancouver, British Columbia.

ジェイソン バターズ（BUTTERS, Jason）は近現代歴史学の博士号取得候補生である。主
な関心は国家権力と自由主義国際主義、および文化的ナショナリズムの関連性である。
それに加え、19・20世紀の世界中での日本や帝国諸国、支配下の領土と人々を繋いだ文
化交流と移動にも興味がある。博士論文では、20世紀初頭の日本における国家権力と帝
国主義のための国際的文化交流と対外文化紹介・宣伝の活用に着目し、国際主義それか
ら文化的ナショナリズムと国家権力の相互関連性を明らかにする。
バターズはコンコルディア大学で学士号と修士号（歴史学）、神戸大学大学院法学研究
科で修士号（政治学）を取得したブリティッシュコロンビア州バンクーバー郊外の出身
者である。

David Xu Borgonjon

Field: Contemporary Art, Modern Chinese Literature, Southeast Asian Literature, Economic Philosophy
Advisor: Lydia H. Liu
Email: david.borgonjon@columbia.edu

David Xu Borgonjon’s dissertation, “Revolution’s Middlemen,” examines the politics of the Chinese language in modern Indonesia through the media and literature of the Sinophone left from 1945 to 1965. He also has an interest in Asian-American studies and contemporary and modern art of East and Southeast Asia.

Nicolle Marr Bertozzi

Field: Japanese History
Advisors: Gregory Pflugfelder and David Lurie
Email: nmb2166@columbia.edu

Nicolle is a PhD student in medieval and early modern Japanese history. Before coming to Columbia, she received her BA in East Asian Languages and Civilizations and English Literature from the University of Chicago (2017). Her research interests include material culture, craft knowledge, the repurposing of objects, and the tea ceremony. She has spent over a year apprenticing with sudare screen artisans in Kyoto and studying tea.