クリストフ・フェルカー

Christoph Völker is a PhD candidate at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU Munich), specializing in modern Japanese history. His research interests focus in particular on the cultural and intellectual history of modern Japan in a global context, cultural exchange, and Japan’s engagement with modernity and Japanese discourses on Asia.

In his dissertation, he focuses on the research trips of Japanese historians of art and architecture around the year 1900. Through case studies on influential researchers of this era, such as art historian Okakura Kakuzō (Tenshin) and the architectural historian Itō Chūta, he not only explores the influence of the findings of these expeditions to China and India on the work of the respective intellectuals, but also examines the impact of these research trips to Asia on contemporary specialist debates and discourses on Asia. This project thus contributes to research on modern Japanese travels to Asia and provides not only a new perspective on the Japanese perception of Asia around 1900 but also on the intellectuals and researchers under investigation.

During his stay at the DIJ, Christoph will devote himself to intensive research in archives and libraries and will engage in professional exchanges with experts in Japan.