Junko Takeda

• 2025 Spring
  • MAX 301 Ethics, Justice, and Citizenship
  • MAX 400 Selected Topics - CCE Honors Capstone
• 2024 Fall
  • MAX 301 Ethics, Justice, and Citizenship
  • AAA/HST 300 Selected Topics - Asian American Memoirs
• 2024 Summer
  • HST 111 Early Modern Europe, 1350-1815
  • HST 121 Global History to 1750
• 2024 Spring
  • MAX 302 Civic Engagement Research Seminar
  • HST 496 Distinction Thesis in History
  • MAX 301 Ethics, Justice, and Citizenship
  • IRP 499 Honors Capstone Project
• 2023 Fall
  • HST 495 Distinction Thesis in History
  • MAX 301 Ethics, Justice, and Citizenship
  • CAS 100 Selected Topics - Pandemics:Global&MentalHealth
• 2023 Summer
  • HST 111 Early Modern Europe, 1350-1815
  • HST 121 Global History to 1750
• 2023 Spring
  • HST 313 French Revolution: Sun King to Guillotine
  • AAA/HST 300 Selected Topics - Asian American Memoirs

Junko Takeda’s research and teaching interests include the histories of early modern citizenship, globalization, revolutions, migration, displacement and disease. The bulk of her research has focused on France's engagement with Asian empires and populations.

She has written two books, “Between Crown and Commerce: Marseille and the Early Modern Mediterranean” (Johns Hopkins, 2011), and “The Other Persian Letters: Iran and a French Empire of Trade, 1700-1808” (Liverpool University Press, Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment, 2020). 

She is currently completing two monographs, “Avedik: Louis XIV's Armenian Prisoner: Incarceration and Disinformation in France's Early Empire," and "Métissage and Martyrdom: The Story of Maria Yamada Guimar de Pinha of Siam, 1664-1728." Both explore migration, dispossession, and religious and ethnic violence in the early modern world.

Beyond premodern global, connected and French histories, Takeda's additional interests include Asian American history and Zainichi Korean history. Her memoir-in-progress, “Undocumented: A Japanese-Korean American Memoir,” explores inter-ethnic tensions, statelessness, anti-Asian racism and discrimination, life as an undocumented immigrant, and the challenges of caregiving for an elderly immigrant parent.

As chair of CCE, Takeda regularly teaches MAX 301 Ethics, Justice, and Citizenship and MAX 302 Civic Engagement Research Seminar. In the History Department, she teaches introductory courses in global and European histories; upper-division classes on the histories of disease, the French Revolution, French empire, and early modern globalization; and a course on Asian American Memoirs and Histories. She co-directs the Early Modern Connected Histories CNY Humanities Corridor Group with Syracuse History Department colleague, Brian Brege, and Hamilton College Associate Professor Mackenzie Cooley.

Takeda is the recipient of the Mellon Dissertation Fellowship, the Georges Lurcy Fellowship, Society for French Historical Studies Research Award and a visiting research fellowship at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. At Syracuse University, she has been honored as a Daicoff Endowed Faculty Scholar and O'Hanley Endowed Faculty Scholar. She has received the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Award for Research and Teaching, the Junior Meredith Teaching Recognition Award, an Excellence in Graduate Education Faculty Recognition Award, and an Arts and Sciences | Maxwell School Faculty Advisor of the Year Award (2023-2024). 

• Books
  • Takeda, J., The Other Persian Letters: Iran and a French Empire of Trade, 1700-1808. Liverpool University Press, 2020.
  • Takeda, J., Between Crown and Commerce: Marseille and the Early Modern Mediterranean. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011.
• Journal Articles
  • Takeda, J., "Catholics Abandoned by Louis XIV: A Georgian Prince, Armenian Patriarch, and Religious Politics in Islamic Asia." French Historical Studies Journal Special Forum, Islam and Early Modern France, 2024.
  • Takeda, J., "French Mercantilism and the Early Modern Mediterranean: A Case Study of Marseille's Silk Industry." Special Issue: France and the Mediterranean, French History, 2015.
  • Takeda, J., "Global Insects: Silkworms, Sericulture, and Statecraft in Napoleonic France and Tokugawa Japan." Special Issue: Animals and French History, 2014.
  • Takeda, J., "Silk, Calico and Immigration in Marseille." Special Issue: Merkantilismus. Wiederaufnahme einer Debatte, Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, 2014.
  • Takeda, J., "Levantines in Marseille: The Politics of Naturalization and Neutralization in Old Regime France, 1660 – 1720." Seventeenth-Century French Studies, 2008.
  • Takeda, J., "French Absolutism, Marseillais Civic Humanism, and the Languages of Public Good." The Historical Journal, 2006.
• Book Chapters
  • Takeda, J., "Marseille: Between Independence and Incarceration." In Twelve Cities, One Sea: Early Modern Port Cities and their Inhabitants. Edizioni Scientifische Italiane, 2023.
  • Takeda, J., "Epidemics, Disinformation, and Financial Meltdown: Lessons from the Great Plague of Marseille of 1720." In The Marseille Mosaic. Ingram, M., Kleppinger, K. (eds.) Berghahn Books, Space and Place Series, 2022.
  • Takeda, J., "Early Modern Trade." In Cultural History of Western Empires: The Enlightenment, 1650-1800. Coller, I. (ed.) Bloomsbury, 2018.
  • Takeda, J., "L’Othoman, ou abregé des vies des empereurs turcs." In Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History 1500-1900. Chesworth, J., Thomas, D. (eds.) Brill, 2017.
  • Takeda, J., "Vincent de Stochove." In Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History 1500-1900. Chesworth, J., Thomas, D. (eds.) Brill, 2017.
  • Takeda, J., "Voyage en Egypt (1631)." In Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History 1500-1900. Chesworth, J., Thomas, D. (eds.) Brill, 2017.
  • Takeda, J., "‘The Princesses’ Representative’ or Renegade Entrepreneur?: Marie Petit, the Silk Trade and Franco-Persian Diplomacy." In Queenship and Power: Colonization, Piracy and Trade in Early Modern Europe. Paranque, E., Pobrasco, N. and Jowitt, C. (eds.) Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
• Book Reviews
  • "Entrepot of Revolutions: Saint Domingue, Commercial Sovereignty, and the French American Alliance." In H-France. Takeda, J. (ed.) , 2024.
  • Martin, M., Weiss, G., "The Sun King at Sea: Art and Galley Slavery in Louis XIV’s France." Takeda, J. (ed.) H-France Forum, 2023.
  • Takeda, J., Wood, L., "Archipelago of Justice: Law in France’s Early Modern Empire." H-France Forum, 2022.
  • Takeda, J., Mokhberi, S., "The Persian Mirror: French Reflections of the Safavid Empire in Early Modern France." H_France Review.
  • Takeda, J., Coller, I., "Muslims and Citizens: Islam, Politics, and the French Revolution." The Journal of Modern History, 2021.
  • Takeda, J., Gottman, F., "Global Trade, Smuggling, and the Making of Economic Liberalism: Asian Textiles in France 1680-1760." American Historical Review, 2017.
  • Takeda, J., "Mercantilism Reimagined: Political Economy in Early Modern Britain and its Empire." Stern, P. J., Wennerlind, C. (eds.) History: Review of New Books, 2015.
• Encyclopedia Entries
  • Takeda, J., "Danton." In International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest. Blackwell Publishing, 2009.
  • Takeda, J., "Marat." In International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest. Blackwell Publishing, 2009.
  • Takeda, J., "Mirabeau." In International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest. Blackwell Publishing, 2009.
  • Takeda, J., "Sieyes." In International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest. Blackwell Publishing, 2009.

Fernand Braudel Symposium: 75 Years Later, University of California at Berkeley, and Stanford University, "Mobility and Immobility in the Early Modern Mediterranean" (November 16, 2024 - November 17, 2024)

Asian American Research Center at Stanford (AARCS), "Undocumented: Writing a Korean-Japanese American Memoir" (November 13, 2024)

Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, "A Japanese Luso-Indian, French Countess in Siam: Maria Guimar de Pinha's Story of Métissage and Martyrdom, 1688-1728" (November 12, 2024)

Curtis Chin talk and dinner, "Everything I Learned I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant" on Asian American history, race, civic engagement, "Mobility and Immobility in the Early Modern Mediterranean" (November 11, 2024)

Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, "Voices of the Marginalized: Natalie Zemon Davis's Impact on Global Microhistories" (October 31, 2024 - November 2, 2024)

Renaissance Society of America, "Maria Yamada Guimar's Captivity and Lawsuit: A Japanese Luso-Goan Widow in Siam, 1688-1728" (March 25, 2024)

Thursday Night Club (SUNY Upstate, Syracuse), SUNY Upstate, "Interracial, Inter-ethnic Connections: Western Kyushu and its Global Pasts" (December 7, 2023)

Global Premodern Studies Lightning Talk (GPS, Syracuse), Premodern Global Studies, "Becoming Madame Constance: An Indo-Portuguese Japanese Kitchen Slave who Sued the Compagnie des Indes" (December 1, 2023)

Pro-Seminar, (Art History, Syracuse), "Asian American History and Art: Some Reflections" (October 30, 2023)

Sixteenth Century Studies Conference (SCSC, Baltimore), "French Imperial Failures in Siam and Persia: Asian Revolutions in the Age of Revolutions" (October 28, 2023)

When Stripes Collide, "When Stripes Collide: Korean Identity, Diversity, Intersectionality" (October 18, 2023)

Migrations Summer Pathways (Cornell), "Lost Voices, Secret Lives: A Japanese Korean American Memoir" (June 16, 2023)

The Plague of Provence, H-France Salon, "The Plague of Provence" (June 9, 2023)

Renaissance and Reformation Colloquium (RRC, Toronto), "The Other Persian Letters: Iran and a French Empire of Trade" (April 28, 2023)

Triangle Intellectual History Seminar (Duke University), "Avétik, Louis XIV's Armenian Prisoner: Narratives of Confessional Conflict, Captivity, and Conversion in the Early Modern Mediterranean"" (January 22, 2023)

Early Modern Connected Histories (EMCH, Syracuse), "Staging Anti-Asian Violence in Louis XIV’s France: Armenians, Orientalism, and Early Modern Empire" (October 20, 2022)

"Armenians and Anti-Asian Violence in Early Modernity: Erased Histories of Religious and Ethnic Minorities" (October 12, 2022)

Global France Seminar (MIT), "Avedik, Louis XIV’s Armenian Prisoner: Confessional Conflicts, Involuntary Movement, and Incarceration in the Early Modern Mediterranean" (October 12, 2022)

Lemoyne College, "Between Statelessness and Citizenship: A Memoir of a Korean-Japanese immigrant family" (April, 2022)

Newhouse School (Syracuse), "My Journey through Academia as an Asian-American Woman, Formerly Undocumented Immigrant, and First Generation-College Student: Some Thoughts on DEIA" (April, 2022)

Visions of Empire: An Interdisciplinary Roundtable, Society for 18th-Century Studies (ASECS, Baltimore), "Avedik, Louis XIV’s Armenian Prisoner: Global Microhistory, Empire and Anti-Asian Prejudice in the Age of Enlightenment" (March 31, 2022)

Presidential Roundtable: Muslims in France Across Time and Space, (FHS Conference, Charlotte), "Persia and a French Empire of Trade, 1700-1808" (March 24, 2022)

Visions of Empire: An Interdisciplinary Round-table (ASECS, Baltimore), "Global Microhistory, Critical Race Theory, and Anti-Asian Prejudice in the Age of Enlightenment" (March, 2022)

Interdisciplinary Renaissance and Early Modern Seminar, University of Leeds, "Avedik, Louis XIV’s Armenian Prisoner: Incarceration, Conversion, and Contests over Sacred Space in the Early Modern Mediterranean" (February 15, 2022)

Commentator for Meredith Martin and Gillian Weiss, Book Launch (Getty), "The Sun King at Sea: Maritime Art and Galley Slavery in Louis XIV’s France" (February 15, 2022)

Untold Stories of the PWI (Primarily White Institution): Let’s Talk About It, ASIA (Asian Students in America), Syracuse University and SUNY ESF, "Asian in America: An Inter-generational Autobiography" (November 12, 2021)

Invited lecture for affinity groups (Syracuse), "Becoming a Professor as an Asian-American Woman, Formerly Undocumented Immigrant, and First-generation College Student" (October 28, 2021)

Podcast for IthacaBound , "Marseille: Between France and the Mediterranean" (October 15, 2021)

Graduate Seminar, HIST 501 “Graduate Study in History, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), "Global Microhistory and the Age of Revolutions: Iran and a French Empire of Trade" (October 6, 2021)

Zoomcast for Prof. Gosia Fidelis, Graduate Seminar, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), "Global Microhistory and the Age of Revolutions: Reflections of a Formerly Undocumented Immigrant on Inclusivity in Historical Methodologies" (October 6, 2021)

Lichtenberg- Kolleg Gottingen Institute for Advanced Study Enlightenment Reading Group, "Jean-François Rousseau and a French Revolution in India" (July 1, 2021)

Duke University Faculty- Student Task Force for the Teaching and Study of Race, "Becoming an Early-Modern Europeanist as an Asian American Woman and Formerly Undocumented Immigrant" (April 27, 2021)

Women’s Action Group WAGS, "Women’s History Month Fireside Chat: A Seat at the Table for Women, Girls, and Movements of Color" (April 21, 2021)

Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, "Conversation on Anti-Asian and anti-AAPI Violence" (March 18, 2021)

HST 803 Methodology, Syracuse University , "Iran and a French Empire of Trade, 1700-1800" (March 3, 2021)

Panic and Plague in 1720 and 2020,, University of Minnesota Center for Early Modern History, "The Great Plague of Marseille: Epidemics and Globalization in the Age of Enlightenment and Revolution" (November 6, 2020)

Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the COVID-19 Crisis, Syracuse University, "From the Great Plague of Marseille to Covid-19: A Comparative Study" (October 16, 2020)

Graduate Seminar, HST 511 “Graduate Colloquium on Modern Europe, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), "Rethinking the Age of Enlightenment and Revolution: Iran and a French Empire of Trade, 1700-1810" (September 9, 2020)

CAS 200 “Sex and Power Before 1700, Syracuse University, "Renegadism in the Early Modern Mediterranean" (April, 2020)

Faculty Advisor of the Year 2024, Maxwell School, College of Arts and Sciences (2023 - 2024)

Inaugural Daicoff Endowed Faculty Scholar, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University (2019 - 2024)

Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award, SU Graduate School (April, 2023)

Appleby-Mosher Research Grants, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University (2007 - 2020)

Frank and Helen Pellicone Faculty Scholar, Department of History, Syracuse University (August, 2017)