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Okazawa, Yasuhiro
Institute for Research in Humanities Assistant Professor
Basic Information
Email Address
Email Address
okazawa.yasuhiro.4e
kyoto-u.ac.jp
Profile
Profile
Yasuhiro Okazawa (岡澤康浩) is a historian and translator, currently serving as an Assistant Professor at the Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University. His research fields include the history of science and technology as well as media theory. He is particularly interested in how human sciences and their inscription devices have historically shaped our ways of knowing and making.
His PhD thesis, "The Scientific Rationality of Early Statistics, 1833–1877," closely examines the activities of the Statistical Society of London. His work situates the historical formation of early statistics in England within the history of data and collective observation, presenting it as a historical event that brought a new style of writing into being.
Currently, Yasuhiro is working on a new research project tentatively titled "The Science of Distraction: Televisual Technologies, Audience Research, and Media Theory in Japan c. 1970-2000." This study explores the early history of televisual technologies in Japan and connects technological research and developments with contemporary sciences of attention. He is particularly interested in intersecting the history of media theory in Japan with the history of applied human sciences such as ergonomics and the science of labor (労働科学).
With Hansun Hsiung, Yasuhiro recently co-edited a special issue, “Science Wars Before the ‘Science Wars’: East Asia as Method,” for Historia Scientiarum, an international journal published by the History of Science Society of Japan. His contribution, “All the Sciences Under One Roof: Shimomura Toratarō and His Project of ‘History Toward Science’,” explores the brilliant yet dangerous Kyoto School philosopher of science Shimomura Toratarō. It examines his concept of “history toward science,” developed as a critique of Eurocentric “history of science,” focusing on his paradoxical defense of the European origins of modern science at the infamous Overcoming Modernity symposium in 1942, and his seamless entwinement of world-historical writing with the Japanese Empire's imagined “world-historical mission” of making a new world. If you're interested in Japan's long engagement with postmodernity, the technoscientific threads of Kyoto School philosophy, or the uneasy entanglement of the global history of science with global imperialist visions, please feel free to request PDFs.
Academic Degree
Research History
- From May 2021, To Apr. 2028Kyoto University, Institute for Research in Humanities, Assistant Professor (fixed-term)
- From Apr. 2019, To Apr. 2021Kyoto Univeristy, Graduate School of Letters, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellow
- From Sep. 2018, To Dec. 2018Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Department II, Writing-up Predoctoral Fellow
- From May 2011, To Jun. 2011University of Tokyo, Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, Research Assistant
Professional Memberships
- Japan Association for Media, Journalism and Communication Studies
- Association for Studies of Culture and Representation
- History of Science Society
- THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE SOCIETY OF JAPAN
researchmap URL
ID,URL
ORCID ID
J-Global ID
Researcher number
80914415External link
Research
Research Areas
- Humanities & social sciences, Sociology, Media Studies
- Humanities & social sciences, Sociology/history of science and technology
Research Interests
- Human Sciences
- interaction
- inscription
- television
- STS
- history of reading
- Media Studies
- History of Science
- Sociology of Science
Books and Other Publications
- ObjectivityAkihisa Setoguchi; Yasuhiro Okazawa; Kuni Sakamoto; Nobumichi Ariga, Joint translation, Chapter Three: Mechanical Objectivity, Daston, Lorraine J; Galison, PeterNagoya University Press, Aug. 2021
- Hobby, Taste, Everyday LifeAkihiro Kitada; Kaitai-ken, Contributor, Ch. 1 'Why Does Taste Matter to Sociology?', Ch. 3 Who Cares What You Read? (with Yasuaki Dan)Kawade Shobō Shinsha, Mar. 2017, Not refereed
Papers
- All the Sciences Under One Roof: Shimomura Toratarō and His Project of "History Toward Science"Yasuhiro OkazawaHistoria Scientiarum, 25 Apr. 2025, Peer-reviewed
- Introduction (Special Issue: Science Wars Before the "Science Wars"—East Asia as Method)Hansun Hsiung; Yasuhiro OkazawaHistoria Scientiarum, 25 Apr. 2025
- Mapping the Space of Possibility: A Dialogue between Ethnomethodology and Historical EpistemologyYasuhiro OkazawaZinbun Gakuhō, 20 Jun. 2024
- Exemplars and Two Philosophers: Toward an Ecological History of Reasoning AnimalsYasuhiro OkazawaShisō (Special Issue: Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Revisited), Oct. 2023
- Materialism of the Inscription Technologies: For Bruno Latour's Media TheoryYasuhiro OkazawaGendai Shisō (Special Issue: Bruno Latour 1947-2022), Mar. 2023
- Subcultural Practices and Communication of Young People : A survey research addressed to the young people in the Nerima ward in 2010KITADA Akihiro; SHINDO Yusuke; KUDO Masato; OKAZAWA Yasuhiro; DAN Yasuaki; TERACHI Mikito; OGAWA TomuResearch survey reports in information studies interfaculty initiative in information studies, the University of Tokyo, 2013
Misc.
- Modern Science as a Techno-Poietic Epistemology: A Note on Shimomura Toratarō’s Philosophy of the History of ScienceYasuhiro OkazawaShohō Zinbun, Jun. 2025
- ［座談会同席］大浦康介名誉教授、冨谷至名誉教授、高木博志教授（人文科学研究所）インタビュー（第11回、人文研座談会）抄録京都大学学術研究展開センター人文社会系部門Aspiring to Transcend --京都大学における人文社会科学を中心とした融合研究の先例調査報告書, Mar. 2024
- [Event Report] Techniques of the Shichōsha: On the Technoscientific Formation of Cultural SubjectsYasuhiro OkazawaREPRE, Oct. 2023
- Legacy and Conceptual DiggingYasuhiro OkazawaEureka, Mar. 2021
- ［新刊紹介］ ロレイン・ダストン、ピーター・ギャリソン（瀬戸口明久、岡澤康浩、坂本邦暢、有賀暢迪訳） 『客観性』（名古屋大学出版会 2021年8月）岡澤 康浩REPRE, Mar. 2022
- Questionnaire Design (Novels)Yasuhiro Okazawa; Yusuke ShindoSurvey report of "A Sociometric Approach to the “Subcultural Capital” and the Sociality of Young" Project, 2013
- Seikenryoku to Insatsusareta Suzi no KozuiYasuhiro OkazawaShiso, May 2012
Presentations
- All the Sciences Under One Roof: Shimomura Toratarō’s War on 'Japanese Science'Yasuhiro Okazawa'Science Wars in East Asia' Workshop (Ewha Womans University), 06 Jun. 2024
- All the Sciences Under One Roof: Shimomura Toratarō’s War on 'Japanese Science'岡澤康浩京都大学人文科学研究所「モノ・知識・環境」共同研究班, 26 Apr. 2024
- 誰が彼らを殺すのか：怒りと認識の十九世紀統計データ史岡澤康浩京都大学人文科学研究所「ポスト・パンデミック世界の新しい社会・環境理論に向けて」共同研究班, 04 Mar. 2024
- 〈視聴者〉の系譜：環境制御の技術としてのテレビジョン岡澤康浩京都大学人文科学研究所「生きる営みと環境問題」共同研究班, 19 Feb. 2024
- All the Sciences Under One Roof: Shimomura Toratarō’s War on 'Japanese Science'岡澤康浩京都大学人文科学研究所「歴史的メディア認識論」共同研究班, 12 Feb. 2024
- The Sciences of Distraction: Ergonomics, Human Factors, and Media Theory in JapanYasuhiro OkazawaTechniques of the Shichōsha: On the Technoscientific Formation of Cultural Subjects, 17 Jun. 2023
- Colourless Writings of Statisticians and Their Distant Readers: The Creation of the Journal of the Statistical Society of London, 1838–1858Yasuhiro OkazawaHistory of Science Socieyt Annual Conference, Jul. 2019
- Virtuous Statisticians and Their Learned Blindness: The Statistical Society of London and the Shaping of Social Scientific Self, 1870–1875Yasuhiro OkazawaHistory of Science Society of Japan Annual Meeting, May 2019
- Statisticians of the World, Unite!: The Statistical Society of London and the Making of Social Statisticians, 1833–1877Yasuhiro OkazawaModern Social and Economic History & Policy Seminar (Cambridge University ), Jan. 2019
- The Blindness of the Statistical Gaze: Statistical Observers and Their Use of the Questionnaire in Early Victorian BritainYasuhiro OkazawaBritish Society for the History of Science Postgraduate Conference, Apr. 2018
- Faceless Facts, Nameless Gatherers: The role of the Statistical Society of London in the production of statistical facts, c. 1830–1850Yasuhiro OkazawaBritish Society for the History of Science Annual Conference 2017, Jul. 2017
- What Does the Taste Mean for Communication? (3) ― The Ambiguous Relationship between the Act of Reading Novels and Making Connections with PeopleYasuhiro Okazawa; Yusuke ShindoThe 84th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Sociological Society, 2011
Works
External funds: Kakenhi
- The Science of Distraction: Televisual Technologies, Audience Research, and Media Theory in Japan c. 1970-2000Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career ScientistsBasic Section 08010:Sociology-relatedKyoto University岡澤 康浩From 01 Apr. 2022, To 31 Mar. 2025, Granted注意;テレビ;労働科学;人間工学;知覚の歴史;オーディエンス;機械;技術論;視聴者;人間科学;知識
- Theorizing the Man-Machine System: An Entangled History of Media Theory and the Human SciencesGrant-in-Aid for Early-Career ScientistsBasic Section 08010:Sociology-relatedKyoto University岡澤 康浩From 01 Apr. 2025, To 31 Mar. 2028, Granted人間科学;メディア論;技術批判;労働科学
Academic, Social Contribution
Academic Contribution
- Things, Organism, and Environment: East Asian Biological TechnologiesPlanning, management, etc.Ken Kawamura, Akihisa Setoguchi, Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University, From 09 Nov. 2024
- "Science Wars" in East Asia WorkshopPlanning, management, etc., Panel moderatorYasuhiro Okazawa, Hansun Hsiung, Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto Univesrsity, From 15 Jul. 2024
- 'Special Session for Young Scholars', Beyond the Theory/Case Distinction: Reconsidering the East Asian Perspectives of Science, Technology, and Disaster StudiesPanel moderatorOrganized by Ken Kawamura, Co-Sponsored by Graduate School of Science and Technology Policy, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology & Kyoto University's Institute for Research in Humanities "Things, Knowledge, Environment" Research Group, KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), From 21 Feb. 2024, To 21 Feb. 2024
- テレビジョン・アーカイブスを再想像する：科学技術とメディア論から考える未来Planning, management, etc., Panel moderatorショーン ハンスン, 岡澤 康浩, 京都大学人文科学研究所, From 04 Dec. 2023
- Historical Media Epistemology: The Technoscientific Formation of TelevisionPlanning, management, etc.Hsiung, Hansun, From 01 Apr. 2023, To 31 Mar. 2024
- Techniques of the Shichōsha: On the Technoscientific Formation of Cultural SubjectsPlanning, management, etc., Panel moderatorHsiung Hansun, Yasuhiro Okazawa, 京都大学人文科学研究所, From 17 Jun. 2023, To 18 Jun. 2023
- 「科学的知識の共同性を支えるメディア実践に関する学際的研究」共同研究班Planning, management, etc.京都大学人文科学研究所（班長：河村賢）, From 01 Apr. 2022, To 31 Mar. 2023
- 「実践としての科学的認識：『客観性』『ラボラトリー・ライフ』を読む」（人文研アカデミー）Planning, management, etc., Panel moderator主催：京都大学人文科学研究所、共催：アクターネットワーク理論と社会学研究会, 京都大学人文科学研究所＋オンライン, From 24 Jul. 2022
