Yumi Kodama holds an MA in East Asian Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her scholarly interests are centered on pre-modern Japanese women's history, focusing particularly on the period before 1650. She conducts in-depth analyses of women's roles within familial frameworks and their contributions to politics. Through her research, Kodama aims to debunk entrenched stereotypes that erroneously depict pre-modern East Asian women as passive, submissive, and obedient.
Her MA thesis offers a critical reassessment of Taira Shigeko (1142-1176), arguing that the establishment of the first Japanese shogunate would not have been possible without Shigeko's agency. In addition to her specialization in Japanese women's history, Kodama also maintains research interests in comparative history, global history, and legal history. She is slated to conduct research on global legal history from a gendered perspective at the Max Planck Institute in 2024
MA, East Asian Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, 2022
BA, Psychology, Musashino University, 2012
Joshi Gakuin 女子学院 2002
Premodern (before 1650) Japanese women's history; Women's history; Gender history; Political history; Family history; Legal history; Comparative history; Global history.
Japanese 102
Introductory Kambun
EALC 0020 Introduction to Chinese Civilization
“Kenshunmon’in―Taira Shigeko—: Sociopolitical Structures of the Insei and Women’s Agency in Twelfth Century Japan.” UCLA, 2022. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/07z643fp.
School of Arts and Sciences Governments
Graduate And Professional Student Assembly
Research Council
Graduate Student Research Colloquium