Susan J. Pharr (born March 16, 1944) is an academic in the field of
political science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...
, a
Japanologist
Japanese studies ( Japanese: ) or Japan studies (sometimes Japanology in Europe), is a sub-field of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on Japan. It incorporates fields such as the study of Japanes ...
, and Edwin O. Reischauer Professor of Japanese Politics, director of
Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies and the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
.
[Harvard, Arts & Sciences]
Faculty bio.
/ref> Her current research focuses on the changing nature of relations between citizens and states in Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...
, and on the forces that shape civil society over time.[Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies]
Institute bio.
/ref>
In the spring of 2008, the Japanese government acknowledged Pharr's life's work by conferring the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, which represents the third highest of eight classes associated with this award. Accompanying the badge of the order was a certificate explaining the award as recognition of the extent to which Pharr has "contributed to promoting intellectual exchange between Japan and the United States of America, and to guiding and nurturing young Japanologists."
Education and academic life
Susan Pharr received her B.A. (1966) with high honors from Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of ...
. In 1966–67, she was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow
The Institute for Citizens & Scholars (formerly known as the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation) is a nonpartisan, non-profit based in Princeton, New Jersey that aims to strengthen American democracy by “cultivating the talent, ideas, ...
. She earned her M.A.
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
(1970) and Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
(1975) in political science from Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, where she specialized in comparative politics with a focus on Japan.[Harvard, Arts & Sciences]
Faculty curriculum vitae.
/ref>
Her interest in Japan was largely a matter of happenstance. As a first-year graduate student looking for recreation and a few self-defense skills for the streets of New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, she signed up for a judo
is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo"). ...
class that turned out to be made up almost entirely of Japanese black belts who were fellow Columbia students. Talking with her judo classmates and venturing in their company for sushi
is a Japanese dish of prepared , usually with some sugar and salt, accompanied by a variety of , such as seafood, often raw, and vegetables. Styles of sushi and its presentation vary widely, but the one key ingredient is "sushi rice," also ...
piqued her interest sufficiently to spur her to take courses on Japanese society and politics with James William Morley, Herbert Passin, and, later on, Gerald Curtis. In an intellectual world that was galvanized by the question of what made countries succeed or fail politically and economically, she found the study of Meiji Japan riveting and soon made Japan the center of her doctoral work in comparative politics.
While completing her dissertation, she launched her career at the Social Science Research Council
The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) is a US-based, independent, international nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research in the social sciences and related disciplines. Established in Manhattan in 1923, it today maintains a he ...
in New York, where from 1974 to 1976 she served as staff associate for its Japan Committee, a post later held, coincidentally, by her Reischauer Institute colleague Theodore C. Bestor.
In 1977 she became an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...
and was promoted to associate professor in 1980. On leave from Wisconsin she spent 1983 in the Agency for International Development
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 ...
, where she was assigned responsibility for improving U.S.-Japan aid coordination, and two years, from 1985 to 1987, as Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. CSIS was founded as the Center for Strategic and International Studies of Georgetown University in 1962. The center conducts polic ...
(CSIS) in Washington, D.C.
Pharr joined the Harvard faculty in 1987. She has served as director of Harvard's Program on U.S.-Japan Relations since 1987 and became Edwin O. Reischauer Professor of Japanese Politics in 1991. From 1992 to 1995 she served as chair of the Government Department. In 1995–96, she held the Edwin O. Reischauer Professor of Japanese Studies. In 1996–98, she was as associate dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She has been the director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies since 2004 through the present.
As an active participant in university life at Harvard, Pharr is on the steering committee of the Asia Center and on the executive committee of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs
A weatherhead, also called a weathercap, service head, service entrance cap, or gooseneck (slang) is a weatherproof service drop entry point where overhead power or telephone wires enter a building, or where wires transition between overhead an ...
. She serves on the faculty advisory committee for the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations
The Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University seeks to expand understanding and accelerate critical thinking about civil society among scholars, practitioners, policy makers and the general public, by encouraging scholarship, ...
, and is a member of the University Committee on the Environment and the University Committee on the Status of Women. She is also a senior scholar of the Harvard Academy of International and Area Studies.
The impact of any one faculty member is hard to measure in a large multi-faceted institution like Harvard; and yet her name does crop up in a range of contexts. For example, when students proposed creating a student-run magazine about Japan, Pharr agreed to be a faculty advisor. As one of only 41 female tenured professors in the early 1990s, she could only acknowledge that "in many ways Harvard is very much a male institution," which makes her role in the university's Committee on Women all the more significant.
Pharr is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has been a fellow or visiting research scholar at the Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in e ...
, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (or Wilson Center) is a quasi-government entity and think tank which conducts research to inform public policy. Located in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Wash ...
, the East West Center
East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...
, University of Tokyo
, abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project b ...
, Sophia University
Sophia University (Japanese: 上智大学, ''Jōchi Daigaku''; Latin: ''Universitas Sedis Sapientiae'') is a private research university in Japan. Sophia is one of the three ''Sōkeijōchi'' (早慶上智) private universities, a group of the to ...
and Keio University.
Honors
* Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, 2008.
Fellowships and grants
* 1986-87—Principal Investigator for grants from Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Foundation, U.S. Agency for International Development
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 ...
and Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission for international project on "Japan and the U.S. in Third World Development."
* 1986-88—Principal Investigator, grant from the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission through the Social Science Research Council for bi-national project on "Media and Politics in Japan in Comparative Perspective."
* 1990-96—Principal Investigator for grant to the Harvard Program on U.S.-Japan Relations from Akiyama Aiseikan Corporation for research on "Japan and the Third World."
* 1994-97—Grant from the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation for project on "Yen for the Earth: Japan's China Environment Initiative."
* 1995-97—Co-principal investigator for grant from the Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City in the United States, simply known as Mellon Foundation, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, and endowed with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pitt ...
on "The Performance of Democracies."
* 1996—Fellow of the Abe Fellowship Program, Social Science Research Council
The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) is a US-based, independent, international nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research in the social sciences and related disciplines. Established in Manhattan in 1923, it today maintains a he ...
, for project on "Political Ethics and Public Trust in Japan, Italy, and the United States."
* 1996-98—Co-principal investigator for grant from the National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...
for a binational Japan-U.S. project on "Japan's Political Reform: Electoral Institution Change and Political Culture."
* 1996-99—Member, steering committee, for project on "Social Capital, Democracy, and Public Affairs," administered by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
and funded by grants from the Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...
, Rockefeller Foundation, and the Carnegie Foundation.
* 1997-98—Invitee to the Rockefeller Study Center Rockefeller is a German surname, originally given to people from the village of Rockenfeld near Neuwied in the Rhineland and commonly referring to subjects associated with the Rockefeller family. It may refer to:
People with the name Rockefeller fa ...
, Bellagio Bellagio may refer to:
* Bellagio, Lombardy, an Italian town
* Bellagio (resort), a luxury resort and casino in Las Vegas
* Bellagio (Hong Kong), a private housing building
* Bellagio declaration, an intellectual copyright resolution
* 79271 Bellag ...
, Italy, as co-organizer (with Robert D. Putnam
Robert David Putnam (born 1941) is an American political scientist specializing in comparative politics. He is the Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government. Putnam devel ...
) of a conference, June 29-July 3, 1998, on "Public Trust and Governance in the Trilateral Democracies."
* 1999 -- (Summer) Posco Fellow, Research Program, East-West Center.
* 2000-02—Principal investigator, Grants from the U.S.-Japan Friendship Commission and the Center for Global Partnership for a project on "Civil Society in Japan," the first stage of a three-year project joint with the East-West Center
East West (or East and West) may refer to:
*East–West dichotomy, the contrast between Eastern and Western society or culture
Arts and entertainment
Books, journals and magazines
*''East, West'', an anthology of short stories written by Salma ...
, and in cooperation with Keio University, on "Civil Society in the Asia-Pacific."
Selected works
Much of Pharr's research has explored the social basis for democracy in Japan. Her research interests include comparative political behavior; comparative politics of industrialized nations; democratization and political development in Japan and Asia; civil society and nonprofit organizations; political ethics and corruption; environmental politics; the role of the media in politics; U.S.-Japan relations; Japanese politics; and international relations in East Asia.
In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Susan Pharr, OCLC/WorldCat
WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...
encompasses roughly 10+ works in 50+ publications in 4 languages and 3,000+ library holdings. WorldCat Identities
Pharr, Susan J.
/ref>
''Political Women in Japan''
(1981)
** ''Nihon no josei katsudo-ka'' (1989)
''Losing Face: Status Politics in Japan''
(1990)
''Media and Politics in Japan''
(1996), with Ellis S. Krauss
''Disaffected Democracies: What's Troubling Democracies?''
(2000), with Robert D. Putnam
''The State of Civil Society in Japan''
(2003), with Frank J. Schwartz
References
Further reading
* Gewertz, Ken
"History of the Japanese at Harvard: When Jewish and black students were excluded, Japanese students were accepted into final clubs and other exclusive societies,"
''Harvard Gazette.'' February 26, 2004.
* Gewertz, Ken
''Harvard Gazette.'' March 18, 2004.
* Pharr, Susan
''Harvard Magazine.'' November–December 2001.
* Walker, Ruth
''Harvard Gazette.'' May 8, 2008.
See also
*Tonarigumi
The was the smallest unit of the national mobilization program established by the Japanese government in World War II. It consisted of units consisting of 10-15 households organized for fire fighting, civil defense and internal security.
Histo ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pharr, Susan
1944 births
Living people
American women political scientists
American political scientists
American Japanologists
University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty
Harvard University faculty
Emory University alumni
Columbia University alumni
Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 3rd class
American women academics
21st-century American women