Faculty

Education

• B.A. Classical Greek, University of Michigan, 1980
• M.A. Japanese Literature, Columbia University, 1992
• Ph.D. Japanese Literature, Columbia University, 1997




Postdoctoral Training

• Andrew Mellon Post-doctoral Fellowship in the Humanities, Stanford University, 1996-1997   



Academic Appointment, Affiliation, and Employment History

• Chair, East Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Southern California, 08/16/2011-  



Description of Research

Summary Statement of Research Interests

Current research interests include medieval Japanese literature; musical ideas in ritual and literature; translation; ecocriticism; environment and Japanese literature

Research Specialties

Medieval Japanese literature, classical Japanese poetry, literature and the environment, ecocriticism

Detailed Statement of Research Interests

The focus of my research is classical Japanese literature, especially medieval literature related to The Tale of the Heike and its variants. Other interests include Japanese poetry from classical waka to haiku, and the interactions between East Asian poetic practices and various twentieth century modernisms from imagism to objectivism, etc. At present, I am working on several projects: a study of musical ideas in Japanese literature and ritual; and a collection of essays in ecocriticism that applies interdisciplinary perspectives to the study of literature, ritual, and the environment. In my teaching, I try to bring Japanese literature into dialogue with world literature, and vice-versa. Recent teaching includes courses in Japanese fiction and film and a course on Japanese and East Asian literature and the environment.

Funded Research




Other Funded Research

• Japan Foundation Fellowship, Geographies of Sound: Music, Narrative, and Ritual in Medieval Japan, $50,000, 2003-2004   



Publications




Book

• Bialock, D. T. Eccentric Spaces, Hidden Histories: Narrative, Ritual, and Royal Authority from The Chronicles of Japan to The Tale of the Heike. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, February 2007. Stanford



Book Chapter

• Bialock, D. T. "Nation and Epic: The Tale of the Heike as Modern Classic". Stanford, CA: Inventing the Classics: Canon Formation, National Identity, and Japanese Literature/Stanford University Press, 2000. 151-178



Journal Article

• Bialock, D. T. Outcasts, Emperorship, and Dragon Cults in The Tale of the Heike. Buddhist Priests, Kings and Marginals: Studies on Medieval Japanese Buddhism, vol. 13 of Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie/Ecole francaise d'Extreme-Orient. 2003: 227-310 Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie
• Bialock, D. T. (1994). Voice, Text, and the Question of Poetic Borrowing in Late Classical Japanese Poetry. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. Vol. Volume 54 (no. 1)




Honors and Awards

• Japan Foundation Fellowship, 2003-2004   
• Andrew Mellon Post-doctoral Fellowship in the Humanities, Stanford University, 1996-1997   
• Fulbright Award, Fulbright-Hays Research Grant, 1992-1993   



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