Junko Takeda
Professor, History
Daicoff Faculty Scholar
Degree
Ph.D., Stanford University, 2006
Specialties
Early modern European history, modern European history, France, Mediterranean, economic globalization, history of science and medicine
Biography
Junko Takeda’s current research and teaching
interests include the histories of early modern globalization, state-building
and revolutions, migration, medicine and disease. Her first book, Between
Crown and Commerce: Marseille and the Early Modern Mediterranean (Johns
Hopkins, 2011), explored the political tradition of civic republicanism in the
context of French trade with the Ottoman Empire. Her second
monograph, The Other Persian Letters: Iran and a French Empire of
Trade, 1700-1808 (Liverpool University Press, Oxford University Studies in
the Enlightenment, 2020), examines commercial, industrial, and
diplomatic exchanges between France and Iran in the long eighteenth century. It
aims to highlight the importance of Asia in the Age of Revolutions. She is
writing a third book, Avedik: Louis XIV's Armenian Prisoner, a
global micro-history. It tells the story of an Armenian patriarch and his valet
incarcerated at French island prisons in the Mediterranean, Atlantic, and Caribbean
in the early eighteenth century. She has begun research on a fourth book
project, Global Insects: Silkworms, Statecraft and Franco-Japanese
Trade.
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 received
the O'Hanley Faculty Scholar Award, the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Award for
Research and Teaching and the Junior Meredith Teaching Recognition Award.
She is currently the Maxwell School's inaugural Daicoff Faculty Scholar.
Publications
Books:
Between Crown and Commerce: Marseille and the Early Modern Mediterranean (Johns
Hopkins University Press, March 2011).
Iran and a French Empire of Trade, 1700-1808: The Other Persian Letters (Oxford
University Studies in the Enlightenment, Liverpool University Press, 2020).
Avedik: Louis XIV's Armenian Prisoner (monograph in progress).
Global Insects: Silkworms, Statecraft, and Franco-Japanese Trade (monograph
in progress).
Articles and Book chapters:
“Epidemics, Disinformation, and Financial Meltdown: Lessons from
the Great Plague of Marseille of 1720,” in Kathryn
Kleppinger and Mark Ingram, eds., The Marseille Mosaic (Berghahn
Books, 2022).
Takeda, ed. and Introduction, “Plagues, Pandemics and Pathologies in French
History,” French History (Oxford: June 2021).
“Early Modern Trade,” in Ian Coller, ed., Cultural
History of Western Empires: The Enlightenment, 1650-1800, Volume 4
(Bloomsbury, 2018).
“‘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, eds. Estelle
Paranque, Nate Pobrasco, Claire Jowitt (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).
“Vincent de Stochove,” “Voyage en Egypt (1631)” and “L’Othoman, ou abregé des
vies des empereurs turcs,” in John Chesworth, David Thomas, eds., Christian-Muslim
Relations: A Bibliographical History 1500-1900 (Brill, 2017).
“French Mercantilism and the Early Modern Mediterranean: A Case Study of Marseille's
Silk Industry,” Special Issue: France and the Mediterranean, French
History (March 2015).
“Global Insects: Silkworms, Sericulture, and Statecraft in Napoleonic France
and Tokugawa Japan,” Special Issue: Animals and French History, French
History 28:2 (March 2014), 207-225.
"Silk, Calico and Immigration in Marseille," Special Issue:
Merkantilismus. Wiederaufnahme einer Debatte, Vierteljahrschrift für
Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte (Stuttgart, March 2014), 241-63.
"Danton," "Marat," "Mirabeau," and
"Sieyes" for International Encyclopedia of Revolution and
Protest (Blackwell Publishing, March 2009).
"Levantines in Marseille: The Politics of Naturalization and
Neutralization in Old Regime France, 1660 – 1720," peer-reviewed
journal, Seventeenth-Century French Studies, Vol. 30 No. 2 (London:
Maney Publishing, 2008), 170-181.
"French Absolutism, Marseillais Civic Humanism, and the Languages of
Public Good," peer-reviewed journal, The Historical Journal,
Vol. 49. No. 3 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 707-734.
Recent Papers,
Presentations, Blog-posts (2015 to present):
“Jean-François
Rousseau and a French Revolution in India,” invited lecture for the
Lichtenberg-Kolleg Gottingen Institute for Advanced Study Enlightenment Reading
Group (July 1, 2021).
“The French Republic of Letters, Persia, and the Global Age of Revolutions,”
blog-post for Age of Revolutions (April 12, 2021).
https://ageofrevolutions.com/2021/04/12/the-french-republic-of-letters-persia-and-the-global-age-of-revolutions/
“Montesquieu, the Persian Rousseau, and Napoleon’s French Revolution in India,”
blog-post for Liverpool University Press Blog (December 16, 2020) and the
Voltaire Foundation (January 28, 2021). https://liverpooluniversitypress.blog/2020/12/16/montesquieu-persian-rousseau-napoleon-french-revolution-india/ and https://voltairefoundation.wordpress.com/tag/junko-takeda/
“Montesquieu, the Persian Rousseau, and Napoleon’s French Revolution in India,”
blog-post for Liverpool University Press Blog (December 16, 2020).
“Epidemics, Disinformation, and Financial Meltdown: Lessons from the Great
Plague of Marseille of 1720,” Zoom-talk for the Center for Early Modern
History, University of Minnesota (November 6, 2020).
“Jean-François, the Other Rousseau: The Consul of Baghdad and French Expansion
in the Persian Gulf, 1756-1808,” French Colonial History Conference, Montreal,
CA (June 12-14, 2019).
“Persian Civil Wars and the Asian Origins of the French Revolution,” Stanford
Humanities Center French Culture Workshop, Stanford, CA (February 13-14, 2019).
“The Other Persian Letters: Marie Petit and Franco-Iranian Diplomacy,” American
Historical Association Conference, Washington DC (January 4-7, 2018) .
“Marie Petit, Vakhtang VI and Franco-Georgian Diplomacy on the Persian
Frontier, 1704-1715,” at French Historical Society Conference (April 22-25,
2017)
“The Other Persian Letters: Early Modern France, the Gunpowder Empires, and
Mercantilist Entrepreneurialism,” Festschrift for Keith Michael Baker (Feb 3-5,
2017)
“French Entrepreneurs and the Silk Corridors to Safavid Persia, 1700-1715,” for
“Versailles in the World, 1660-1789,” Symposium at NYU (January 29, 2016)
“The Fabre Brothers and the Quest for Persian Silk: Mercantilism,
Entrepreneurs, and Royal Companies in the French Asia Trade,” Western
Society of French History Annual Conference, Chicago IL (November 7-8, 2015)
“Foreign Expertise and Enterprising Frenchmen: Case Studies of the French East
India and Mediterranean Companies,” Panel: Networks and Connectivity in the
Irano-Mediterranean Zone: Commerce and Diplomacy, Conference: Renaissance
Society of America Annual Meeting, Berlin, Germany (March 26-27, 2015)
“A Local Perspective on the Global: Marseille’s Silk Industry and the Compagnie
de la Méditerranée,” 2-Day Conference: France and its Global Histories:
State of the Field, Institut Français du Royaume- Uni; Centre for French History and Culture, and
the School of History, University of St Andrews (August 26-27, 2014)
“Silk and Statecraft: French Mercantilism and the Early Modern Mediterranean,”
Conference: France and the Mediterranean World in the Reign of Louis XIV,
Centre for French History and Culture, University of St. Andrews, UK (May 10,
2014)
“Savage Worms and Modern Machines: French Sericulture, Napoleonic
State-building, and Tokugawa Japan,” Late-Modern Workshop, Centre for French
History and Culture, University of St. Andrews, UK (April 23, 2014)
Teaching Appointments
Syracuse University 2006-Present
Research Interests
Early Modern France, intellectual and political history; Modern France and the World; history of medicine; race and gender in early modern Europe.
Research Grants and Awards
Daicoff
Faculty Scholar, Daicoff Faculty Endowment, Maxwell School of Citizenship and
Public Affairs, Syracuse University, 2019 - present
O’Hanley
Faculty Scholar, O’Hanley Faculty Endowment for Faculty Excellence, Maxwell
School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, 2014-2017
Visiting
Research Fellow, The French Centre, The University of St. Andrews, Fife,
Scotland, Spring/Summer 2014
Daniel
Patrick Moynihan Award for Research and Teaching, Maxwell School, Syracuse
University, 2012
Laura
J. and L. Douglas Meredith Teaching Recognition Award, Meredith Professorship
Program, Syracuse University, March 2009
Appleby-Moser
Faculty Research Grant for manuscript preparation, Maxwell School of
Citizenship, Syracuse University, Summers 2007—2011
Pigott
Faculty Research Fund, Syracuse University, Summer 2009, Summer 2008
Society
for French Historical Studies (SFHS) and Western Society for French Historical
Studies (WSFHS) Research Travel Award for manuscript preparation, Summer 2007
Mellon
Dissertation Writing Fellowship, 2005 – 2006
Georges
Lurcy Fellowship, 2003 – 2004
Selected Professional Activities
American Historical Association (AHA), 2005 - present
Society for French Historical Studies (SFHS), 2004 - present
American Society for 18th-Century Studies (ASECS), 2005 - present
Recent Invited Lectures
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion:
Lectures and Conversations
“Between Statelessness and Citizenship: A
Memoir of a Korean-Japanese immigrant family,”
Invited talk, Lemoyne College, Syracuse, NY
(April 2022).
“Global Microhistory, Critical Race Theory, and
Anti-Asian Prejudice in the Age of
Enlightenment,” Visions of Empire: An
Interdisciplinary Round-table, ASECS Baltimore, American Society for 18th-Century
Studies (accepted for March 2022)
Panelist, “Asian in America,” Untold Stories of
the PWI (Primarily White Institution): Let’s Talk About It, ASIA (Asian
Students in America), Syracuse University and SUNY ESF (November 12, 2021).
“Becoming a Professor as an Asian-American
Woman, Formerly Undocumented
Immigrant, and First-generation College
Student” lecture for affinity groups at Syracuse University (October 28, 2021).
“Global
Microhistory and the Age of Revolutions: Reflections of a Formerly Undocumented
Immigrant on Inclusivity in Historical Methodologies,” Zoomcast for Prof. Gosia
Fidelis, Graduate Seminar, HIST 501 Graduate Study in History, University of
Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Chicago, IL (October 6, 2021).
“Becoming an Early-Modern Europeanist as a Woman
of Color and Formerly Undocumented Immigrant,” invited zoomcast, Duke
University Faculty-Student Task Force for the Teaching and Study of Race (April
27, 2021).
“Women’s History Month Fireside Chat: A Seat at
the Table for Women, Girls, and
Movements of Color,” guest-speaker for Women’s
Action Group WAGS (April 21, 2021).
Participant, Conversation on Anti-Asian and anti-AAPI Violence,
Graduate Students of Color group, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public
Affairs (March 18, 2021).
“Some Reflections on De-Specialization at a Small Graduate
Program,” H-France Salon Volume 10, (Fall 2018)
SU Affiliations
Maxwell Program in
Citizenship and Civic Engagement
Moynihan Institute of
Global Affairs: Center for European Studies