Miriam Silverberg
Miriam Silverberg | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 19, 1951 Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Died | March 16, 2008 (aged 57) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Historian |
| Awards |
|
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | |
| Thesis | Changing song: the Marxist poetry of Nakano Shigeharu (1984) |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | History of Japan |
| Institutions | |
Miriam Silverberg (January 19, 1951 – March 16, 2008) was an American historian. A 1993 Guggenheim Fellow, she was author of Changing Song: The Marxist Manifestos of Nakano Shigeharu (1990) and Erotic Grotesque Nonsense (2007), winning the 1990 John K. Fairbank Prize for the former. A professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, she was director of UCLA's Center for the Study of Women from 2000 to 2003.
Biography
[edit]Silverberg was born on January 19, 1951, in Washington, D.C.[1] Her father later moved to the Embassy of the United States, Tokyo to become a labor attaché there, and she was raised in that city as a youth;[1] she attended International School of the Sacred Heart in Shibuya.[2] She obtained her BA at American University in 1977 and her MA at Georgetown University in 1979, before obtaining a PhD in Japanese history from the University of Chicago in 1984.[3][1] Her doctoral dissertation was titled Changing song: the Marxist poetry of Nakano Shigeharu.[4]
After working at Hamilton College as an assistant professor of history since 1987, Silverberg moved to the University of California, Los Angeles in 1989.[3] She was promoted to associate professor in 1992,[3] before being eventually promoted to full professor.[5] She served as the director of UCLA's Center for the Study of Women from 2000 to 2003.[1] In 2005, she retired early from UCLA after being diagnosed with cancer and Parkinson's disease, and she became a professor emerita.[1][2]
Silverberg won the 1990 John K. Fairbank Prize for her book Changing Song: The Marxist Manifestos of Nakano Shigeharu (1990).[6] Two of her 1991 essays, according to Sabine Frühstück, "put the modern girl on the scholarly map" and marked the beginning of a dedicated academic subfield.[7] In 1993, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to study Japanese modernity.[8][3] In 2006, she published her final book Erotic Grotesque Nonsense, focusing on pre-World War II Japan, completing it "with the help of former students and friends" while ill.[1] The Los Angeles Times said that "Silverberg's scholarship is often required reading for those studying modern Japan".[1] Among her influences were Harry Harootunian, Shozo Fujita, Tetsuo Najita, and John W. Witek.[1]
Silverberg was an editorial board member for the journal Japanese Studies.[2] She was keynote speaker for a 1998 Japanese culture symposium at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.[2]
Silverberg died at Kindred Hospital in Los Angeles on March 16, 2008, from complications with Parkinson's disease; she was 57.[1]
Silverberg had a brother.[1] She was also fluent in Japanese, having been raised in the country during her youth.[1]
Bibliography
[edit]References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Stewart, Jocelyn Y (April 9, 2008). "Miriam Rom Silverberg, 1951 - 2008; UCLA scholar wrote about modern Japan". Los Angeles Times. p. B6. ProQuest 422201818.
- 1 2 3 4 Low, Morris (2009). "In Memoriam: Miriam R. Silverberg (1951–2008)". Japanese Studies. 29 (1): 145–146. doi:10.1080/10371390902897987. ISSN 1037-1397.
- 1 2 3 4 Reports of the President and the Treasurer. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. 1990. p. 171.
- ↑ Silverberg, Miriam Rom (1984). Changing song: the Marxist poetry of Nakano Shigeharu (PhD thesis). OCLC 28781249.
- ↑ "Miriam Silverberg". UCLA Department of History. March 17, 2008. Archived from the original on May 10, 2024. Retrieved July 24, 2025.
- ↑ "John K. Fairbank Prize in East Asian History". www.historians.org. Retrieved July 24, 2025.
- ↑ Frühstück, Sabine (2010). "Review of Erotic Grotesque Nonsense: The Mass Culture of Japanese Modern Times". The Journal of Japanese Studies. 36 (2): 375–378. doi:10.1353/jjs.0.0160. ISSN 0095-6848. JSTOR 20752536.
- ↑ "Miriam Silverberg". Guggenheim Fellows. Archived from the original on April 28, 2025. Retrieved July 23, 2025.
- ↑ Barshay, Andrew E. (1991). "Review of Changing Song: The Marxist Manifestos of Nakano Shigeharu". The Journal of Japanese Studies. 17 (2): 475–482. doi:10.2307/132774. ISSN 0095-6848. JSTOR 132774.
- ↑ Chang, Chia-ning (1992). "Review of Changing Song: The Marxist Manifestos of Nakano Shigeharu". The Journal of Asian Studies. 51 (4): 928–929. doi:10.2307/2059085. ISSN 0021-9118. JSTOR 2059085.
- ↑ Garon, Sheldon (1993). "Review of Changing Song: The Marxist Manifestos of Nakano Shigeharu". The American Historical Review. 98 (3): 928–929. doi:10.2307/2167680. ISSN 0002-8762. JSTOR 2167680.
- ↑ Hoston, Germaine A. (1992). "Review of Changing Song: The Marxist Manifestos of Nakano Shigeharu". Pacific Affairs. 65 (1): 103–105. doi:10.2307/2760233. ISSN 0030-851X. JSTOR 2760233.
- 1951 births
- 2008 deaths
- 20th-century American historians
- American women historians
- 20th-century American women academics
- American Japanologists
- Historians of Japan
- American cultural historians
- Academics from Tokyo
- Academics from Washington, D.C.
- American University alumni
- Georgetown University alumni
- University of Chicago alumni
- Hamilton College (New York) faculty
- University of California, Los Angeles faculty
- American expatriates in Japan
- Deaths from Parkinson's disease in California