Professional Affiliation

Professor of History, Michigan State University.

Expert Bio

Sayuri Guthrie Shimizu is a professor of American History at Michigan State University. Her area of expertise is the history of the United States' engagement with the world and she has published extensively on the United States' relations with East Asia, particularly Japan, since the late 19th century. Her approach to historical study is multidisciplinary, encompassing multiple subfields (diplomatic, economic, social, cultural and environmental). She has been a recipient of numerous research grants and fellowships including the SSRC/Abe Fellowship and the Fulbright Research Fellowship.

Wilson Center Project

"The Rise and Transformation of the North Pacific Ocean Resource Management Regimes, 1900-1975."

Project Summary

This project takes a transnational and interdisciplinary approach to North American (the United States and Canada), Japanese, and Pacific history. Rather than looking at processes of political, economic, cultural, and environmental change in these nations as disconnected phenomena, it will depict transformations occurring on both sides of the North Pacific as a single cluster of historical developments. It examines ideas, local practices, public policies, and intergovernmental institution-building relative to the commercial harvesting and scientific husbandry of ocean resources in the North Pacific in the first three-quarters of the twentieth century, leading up to the United Nations Law of the Sea Conventions (UNCLOS I & II).

Major Publications

• "Transpacific Field of Dreams: How Baseball Linked the United States and Japan in Peace and War" (2012, University of North Carolina Press)
• "Creating People of Plenty: The United States and Japan's Economic Alternatives, 1950-1960" (2001, Kent State University Press)
• "Nichibei Kenkei" (2001< Yuhikaku)