David Spafford, assistant professor of East Asian languages & civilizations, has been awarded a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to study the corporate warrior house in Japan from 1450 to 1650. He is researching the social functions of the warrior house, exploring in particular practices and ideas about family identity, survival and legacy.

Dr. Spafford’s research interests include the history of late medieval and early modern Japan. His book A Sense of Place: The Political Landscape in Late Medieval Japan examines the vast Kant? region as a source of cultural identity and an object of familial attachment during the political and military turmoil of the late 15th and early 16th centuries.