Holly Stephens
Lecturer in Japanese and Korean Studies
Contact details
- Email: holly.stephens@ed.ac.uk
Address
- Street
-
Room 4.04
50 George Square - City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH8 9LH
Availability
Office hours: Tuesdays, 10-11am or by appointment
Background
Holly Stephens received her Ph.D. in History from the University of Pennsylvania in 2017. As a historian of Korea and Japan, her research interests range widely to include economic history, agriculture, empire, everyday life, village organizations, and the emergence of the modern state. Her first monograph—Empire by Association: Agriculture and the Reorganization of the Rural Economy in Colonial Korea—examines the changes to Korean agriculture from the late nineteenth century through the colonial period amidst immense political upheaval. Using previously unexamined farmers’ diaries, the project traces the formation and operation of new agricultural organizations that linked Korean farmers to regional and global markets, as new ideas about the state’s role in the economy and the adoption of scientific farming methods combined to transform agricultural production.
Before joining the University of Edinburgh, Holly was a Postdoctoral Associate at the Council on East Asian Studies, Yale University.
Research summary
Holly's current research interests include:
- History of everyday life in Japan and Korea
- Economic history
- History of agriculture
- Capitalism and empire
- Cooperatives and economic cooperation
- Diaries
- Intellectual history of economic thought