Dr Matthew Stavros

BA, Michigan State University; MA, PhD, Princeton University
528 Brennan MacCallum Building A18

+61 2 9351 4805

Matthew Stavros is an historian of early Japan, specializing in urban and architectural history during the medieval period. In his research, Dr. Stavros synthesizes texts, visual sources, and archaeological data to explore historical cityscapes and architecture as indicators of political, economic, and social circumstances. Other research interests include comparative urban history, religion, and material culture. Dr Stavros was trained in architectural and urban history at Kyoto University and earned his MA and PhD in East Asian Studies at Princeton University.

Current projects

Dr Stavros is currently completing a book manuscript on Kyoto’s urban history to 1600 tentatively titled Kyoto: A spatial-structural history of Japan's premodern capital. The study examines space and architecture across time in search of new historical interpretations of the balance of power that existed between the imperial capital’s several influential institutions, including the emperor, the Buddhist establishment, and military government. He has begun research for a biography of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu while also exploring the prospect of writing a short history of Nagasaki before 1945.

Recent publications

Dr Stavros is the author of “The Sanjō bomon Temple-Palace Complex: The First Locus of Ashikaga Authority in Medieval Kyoto” (Japan Review, 2010) and “Locational Pedigree and Warrior Status in Medieval Kyoto: The residences of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu” (Japanese Studies, May 2009). Both these essays explore the impacts of architectural locations, styles, and functions to early Ashikaga power. He co-authored two chapters in Atlas Historique de Kyoto (UNESCO, 2008), a scholarly encyclopedia of Kyoto’s urban history. In “Building Warrior Legitimacy in Medieval Kyoto” (East Asian History, no. 31, 2007), Dr Stavros examined how medieval warriors used classical-era elite architectural styles as a means of gaining legitimacy.

Areas of teaching and research supervision

Teaching

• The Origins of Japanese Tradition (ASNS2631)
• Japan in the Western Imagination (postgraduate) (JPNS6901)
• Introduction to Japan (JPNS2660)
• Approaches to Research in Asian Studies (ASNS3690)
• Japanese 5 reading (team taught) (JPNS2621)
• Colonialism in Asia (taught in History Department)

Supervision

Dr Stavros supervises honours and postgraduate research students in both Japanese Studies and Asian Studies. In addition to topics related to premodern history and culture, he also enjoys advising students on topics related to literature, nationalism, and Japanese interactions with the West.

Other professional contributions

• Honours Coordinator for Japanese Studies
• Visiting scholar at the University of Tokyo Historiographical Institute, December to March annually.
• Editor and Administrator of PMJS: Premodern Japanese Studies