About me

I am a Docent/Associate Professor of Japanese Language and Culture at the Department of Asian, Middle Eastern and Turkish Studies of the Stockholm University. I am an art historian specializing in Japan and East Asia with a transnational education and career (including Poland, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Norway) in museums and academic institutions. Currently, I am also the Director of the MA Asian Studies Programme at our Department.

 

Education

• 2008    Ph.D., History of Art, Gakushuin University, Tokyo, Japan 
• 2002    M.A., Japan Studies, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland
• 1998    M.A., History of Art, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland

Employment

• 2017 -           Associate Professor/Docent (tenured), Japanese Language and Culture (Art History), Dept. of Asian, Middle Eastern and Turkish Studies, Stockholm University, Sweden
• 2011-2017     University Lecturer (tenured), Art and Visual Studies of Japan, Leiden Institute for Area Studies, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
• 2011-2008     Guest Curator, Museum of Japanese Art and Technology (Krakow); Museum of Cultural History(Oslo); Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities (Stockholm)
• 1999-2008     Curator, Dept. of Far Eastern Art, National Museum in Krakow, Krakow, Poland

Teaching

My teaching encompasses the following subjects: the arts and visual culture of Japan across genres and periods; popular culture; print culture and poetry pictorialization; gender; art theory, methodologies of art history etc. 

Research

As an art historian, I am interested in interdisciplinary approaches that intersect visual arts and social and intellectual history, focusing especially on the role of visuality in collective representation, gender and nationalism. Currently my main research projects pertain to socially engaged artistic practices and the relationships between art and environmental consciousness in Japan and East Asia.  I am also interested in the applications of digital technologies to the study of cultural artifacts and historical processes; and the potential transformative effects that data science hold for the discipline of art history in general.

 

Monographs and edited volumes

• 2009    Hokusai`s Hyakunin isshu: Visual Genesis of Japanese National Identity. Brussels: P.I.E-Peter Lang. (peer-reviewed monograph) 
• 2016    Too Pretty to Throw Away: Packaging Design from Japan, by Ewa Machotka and Katarzyna Cwiertka. Krakow: Museum of Japanese Art and Technology. (book) [Open Access]
• 2018    Consuming Life in Post-Bubble Japan: A Transdisciplinary Perspective, co-edited by Ewa Machotka and Katarzyna Cwiertka. Amsterdam University Press. (peer-reviewed edited volume) [Open Access]

Grants & Awards (selection)

• The Bolin Center for Climate Research, 2018/2019
• The Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, 2018
• The Leiden Asia Center, 2013-15
• The DNP Foundation for Cultural Promotion, 2014/2015
• The College Women's Association of Japan, 2009-2011
• The Mitsubishi Foundation, 2006/2007
• The Metropolitan Center for Far Eastern Art Studies, 2006/2007
• The Ukiyo-e Ota Memorial Museum of Art, 2004/2005
• The Japan Arts Foundation, 2003/2004
• The Japanese Ministry of Education, 2002-2006
• The Toshiba International Foundation, 2001/2002