This is the 12th seminar presented by the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA), the Global Studies Center (UCIS), and the World History Center at hte University of Pittsburgh. The general public is welcome.

Our guest speaker will be Dr. Constantine Vaporis, Director of the Asian Studies Program and history professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. His research focuses on the Edo period, in particular the alternate attendance system and the impact of travel in general. The titles of his two publications exemplify this interest: Breaking Barriers: Travel and the State in Early Modern Japan and Tour of Duty: Samurai, Military Service in Edo, and the Culture of Early Modern Japan. Within his repertoire of course offerings one can often find the following: Japanese History Through Film and Literature and a course dealing with historical memory with specific reference to current relations between Japan, China, and Korea. His most recent publication just published in January is Voices of Early Modern Japan: Contemporary Accounts of Daily Life during the Age of the Shoguns. Dr. Vaporis regularly teaches one or two classes of the NCTA seminar at UMBC. If you want to learn more about our guest speaker, check out his homepage at http://userpages.umbc.edu/~vaporis/Site/Welcome.html The two interviews cited there should be of great interest. One is with Greece-Japan.com and the other with the Samurai Archives.

Method of Presentation: Dr. Vaporis' presentation will deal with four distinct topics:
- Challenges from Within
- Danger from Without
- Seeking Out the World
- Postwar Japan and Asia
Within each topic there will be appropriate readings so that seminar participants can be well-prepared for ongoing discussion during the presentation. These readings will be posted on our website.

Registration is preferred. Please download the attached PDF to register.