In our February 7, 2023 Webinar, scholar Ramona Handel-Bajema, author of Art Across Borders: Japanese Artists in the United States before World War II (MerwinAsia Publishers, 2021), discussed the wave of Japanese artists who contributed to the establishment of American Modernism, challenged notions of a Japanese aesthetic and flourished in a nation that was at times hostile and other times welcoming. In her book, Dr. Handel-Bajema has focused on five artists—Kuniyoshi Yasuo, Ishigaki Eitarō, Shimizu Toshi, Obata Chiura and Miyatake Tōyō—as emblematic of this wave of Japanese artists arriving on American shores.
Ramona Handel-Bajema holds a Ph.D. in Modern Japanese History from Columbia University. She has more than 15 years of experience working at nonprofit organizations and social enterprises, while continuing to teach and write. Currently, Dr. Handel-Bajema teaches at Columbia University at the Committee on Global Thought. She also teaches undergraduate classes at New York University, including a course on using visual media to create historical narratives and a course on understanding the political, economic, social and cultural effects of major disasters. Her recent essay “Dreaming of Mexico: Japan Discovers the Other” appeared in Capture Japan: Visual Culture and the Global Imagination from 1952 to the Present, edited by Marco Bohr and published by Bloomsbury in December 2022.