About Dr Matthew Stavros
Dr. Stavros teaches and carries out research on Japanese history, specializing in the spatial-structural history of premodern cities and architecture.
Dr. Stavros’ main interest is the urban history and architecture of Kyoto during the medieval era. Other fascinations include warrior authority, medieval Buddhism and temple communities, castle towns, and early European accounts of Japan. His work entails integrating textual, material, pictorial, and archaeological sources to explore the physical environment of historical environments. He was trained in architectural and urban history at Kyoto University and completed his Ph.D. in East Asian Studies at Princeton University (2005). Dr Stavros supervises honours and postgraduate research students in both Japanese Studies and Asian Studies. He enjoys advising students doing topics on Japanese history regardless of the period but takes particular interest in topics related to modernity, nationalism, and Japanese interactions with the West, in addition to those related more closely to his own area of specialization.
Selected publications
- "Where a Shogun Lives: Locational Pedigree and Warrior Status in Medieval Kyoto." Forthcoming in Japanese Studies, early 2009.
- “Building Warrior Legitimacy in Medieval Kyoto.” In East Asian History, no. 31, June 2006, pp. 1-28. (Actually published Nov. 2007).
- Review of The Tales of the Heike, trans. by Burton Watson, in Japanese Studies, Sep. 2007.
- Review of Mikael Adolphson, Teeth and Claws of the Buddha, in Asian Studies Review, Dec. 2007.
- “Space, Place, and Limits on Warrior Authority in Medieval Kyoto.” In the Proceedings of the 2006 International Conference on East Asian Architectural Culture, Dec. 2006. (peer reviewed).
- “‘Capitals’ in Medieval Kyoto.” Coauthored with Takahashi Yasuo, in the Proceedings of the 2006 International Conference on East Asian Architectural Culture, Dec. 2006. (peer reviewed).
- Reading Ashikaga History in the Urban Landscape: Kyoto in the Early Muromachi Period, 1336-1467. Doctoral dissertation (Princeton 2005).
- "Castles in Kyoto at the Close of the Age of Warring States: A look at the urban fortresses of Ashikaga Shoguns Yoshiteru and Yoshiaki," (with Takahashi Yasuo). In Japanese Capitals in Historical Perspective: Power, Memory and Place in Kyoto, Edo and Tokyo, 41-66. Curzon Press, 2003.
- Review of M.E. Berry, The Culture of Civil War in Kyoto (Berkeley UCP). Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians of Japan (Kenchiku-shi gaku), March 1999 (in Japanese).
- “Koto enjō,” (古都炎上 “Burning the Old Capital”). Hiroshima University, Education Department, Occasional Papers, Winter 1995 (in Japanese).