Susan Pharr Became Interested in Ja- Her Research Has Explored the Pan Through Martial Arts

Susan J. Pharr IUC ’71

Susan Pharr became interested in Ja- Her research has explored the pan through martial arts. As a ﬁ rst-year social basis for democracy in Ja- graduate student at Columbia Universi- pan and includes topics such as ty, she enr olled in a judo class for both comparative political behavior, recreation and self-defense training and comparative politics of indus- found herself among a group fellow trialized nations, democratiza- students made up almost entirely of tion and political development Japanese black belts. Her interactions in Japan and Asia, civil society with them and pursuant outings for su- and nonproﬁ t organizations, shi eventually led to courses in Japanese political ethics and corruption, society and politics with James William environmental politics, the role Morley, Herbert Passin, and later, Gerald of media in politics, U.S.-Japan Curtis. She found the study of Meiji Ja- relations, Japanese politics, and pan riveting, and eventually made Japan international relations in East the center of her doctoral work in com- Asia. Her current research fo- parative politics. cuses on the changing nature Pharr was born in Atlanta, Georgia and received her of relations between citizens and states in Asia, and the B.A. with high honors from Emory University in 1966. forces that shape civil society over time. She received her M.A. (1970) and Ph.D (1975) in politi- In 2008, Pharr received the Order of the Rising Sun cal science from Columbia. She graduated from the IUC medal from the Japanese government in recognition of in 1971. She became an Assistant Professor at the Uni- the extent to which she has “contributed to promot- versity of Wisconsin-Madison in 1977, then an Associate ing intellectual exchange between Japan and the United Professor in 1980. Pharr joined the Harvard faculty in States of America, and to guiding and nurturing young 1987. Japanologists.” Today, Pharr is the Edwin O. Reischau- She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations er Professor of Japanese Politics in the Department and has been a Fellow or Visiting Research Scholar at of Government, and the director of the Program on the Brookings Institution, the Woodrow Wilson Inter- U.S.-Japan Relations of the Weatherhead Center of In- national Center for Scholars, the East West Center, Uni- ternational Affairs at Harvard University. versity of Tokyo, Sophia University and Keio University.

64 ORDER OF THE RISING SUN