David Luke Howell

David Luke Howell is an American historian specializing in the social, cultural, and economic history of early modern Japan. He is the Robert K. and Dale J. Weary Professor of Japanese History at Harvard University, where he holds a joint appointment in the Department of History and the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations.

Howell's scholarship focuses on the transformation of social relations, economic life, and identity in Japan from the Tokugawa period (1603–1868) into the modern era. His work is regarded as influential in shifting the historiography of Japan toward regional and translocal perspectives.

Academic career Howell was raised in Hilo, Hawai'i, and received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Hawai'i at Hilo. and began his academic career at the University of Texas at Austin, where he taught from 1989 to 1992.

Scholarship Howell's research centers on the social and economic transformations of Japan between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, with particular attention to how local and regional dynamics shaped broader historical change.

Awards and honors Social Science Research Council Grant, 1991 Japan Foundation Research Fellowship, 1992 Fulbright Fellowship, 1997-98 National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, 2007-08

Selected bibliography

Books

Edited volumes

Selected journal articles