Lori Watt, Ph.D., assistant professor of history and of International and Area Studies, both in Arts & Sciences, has been named the fourth Earle H. and Suzanne S. Harbison Faculty Fellow. The fellowship provides research and teaching support for three years to a talented junior faculty member in Arts & Sciences.
“I am delighted to recognize Lori Watt with this fellowship and to support the development of her career,” said Edward S. Macias, Ph.D., executive vice chancellor, dean of Arts & Sciences and the Barbara and David Thomas Distinguished Professor of Arts & Sciences. “Her interests and ideas bring exactly the sort of excitement to Washington University that we had hoped when the fellowship was conceived. Senior faculty are especially impressed with Professor Watt’s interest in interdisciplinary collaboration and look forward to working with her.”
Watt said she is delighted that the fellowship will allow her to do research in Japan, China and Korea in support of her writing on East Asian history.
“But the real pleasure was in the recognition from the University,” she said. “It was nice to learn that Washington University appreciates the kind of contributions I am able to make.
“The award is also significant in that it creates a more direct connection between supporters of the University like the Harbisons and individual faculty members.”
Watt joined the Arts & Sciences faculty in 2004.
She earned a bachelor of arts in international studies in 1988 from Reed College in Portland, Ore., a master of arts in modern Japanese history in 1996 from Ochanomizu University in Tokyo and a doctorate in modern East Asian history in 2002 from Columbia University.
Prior to joining the WUSTL faculty, Watt was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University’s Reischauer Institute for Japanese Studies and held a one-year position teaching Japanese history at Yale University.
Her research explores the dismantling of the Japanese empire after World War II and the transition of East Asia from an imperial to a Cold War formation.
Watt’s courses focus on East Asian history and historiography, empire and decolonization, nations and nationalism, and migration. Watt, who is fluent in Japanese and research-capable in Chinese, also teaches an increasingly popular “Crossing Borders” course in International and Area Studies.
She is a member of the American Historical Association, the Association of Asian Students and the Contemporary Japanese History Workshop.
The faculty fellowship was established in 1995 by Earle H. Harbison, who graduated from Washington University in 1948 with a bachelor’s degree in political science, and his wife, Suzanne Siegel Harbison, who earned a degree from the John M. Olin School of Business in 1949.
Earle Harbison is chairman of Harbison Corp. and past president and chief operating officer of Monsanto Co. He is chair of the Arts & Sciences National Council and an emeritus trustee on the University’s Board of Trustees.