This past Saturday, Oct. 26, Monmouth College and history professor Michelle Damian hosted a symposium on medieval Japan. With the title of “Travel, Trade, and Trauma in Medieval Japan,” the symposium started at 2 p.m. and took place at the Barnes Electronic Classroom in Hewes Library.
Stated by Damian: “It’s a pretty unusual opportunity to have this kind of conference at a place like Monmouth, it is fairly specialized, but I think that’s one of the things that makes it interesting. Travel, trade and violence – these are all things that people can grab onto, even if you don’t have a whole lot of background in Japan.”
With Damian, two other scholars joined in to discuss their studies at the conference. Three Monmouth College students served as respondents to these studies – Emma Hildebrand, Will Stefanisin, and Frida Gonzalez.
Dr. Kendra Strand from the University of Iowa focused her study and presentation on the travel diaries of prominent Japanese dignitaries. Monmouth’s Michelle Damian discussed shipping and trade routes in the inland seas of Japan. Ending the conference, Dr. Peter Shapinsky from the Universituy of Illinois Springfield discussed piracy, trade routes, and mapmaking.
Emma Hildebrand said the conference was “enlightening, especially to connect the pieces of history and get a full picture of maritime medieval Japan”
Griffin Morrill - News Editor