Ran Zwigenberg

I received my PhD in history at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (2013) after which I spent a year as a Post Doctoral Associate with the Council on East Asian Studies at Yale University. My research focuses on modern Japanese history, with a specialization in memory and intellectual history. My recent manuscript Hiroshima: The Origins of Global Memory Culture (Cambridge University Press, 2014) deals comparatively with the commemoration and the reaction to the Holocaust and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. In addition, I published on issues of war memory, atomic energy and survivor politics. My current research  examines the role members of the medical profession, especially psychiatrists, played in the peace movement and survivor politics and the way such involvement, in turn, impacted the practice of medicine. A second collaborative  research project, with a UK colleague, focuses on the modern history of Japanese castles in the context of the larger issues of reconstruction, national identity and local memory.

Recent Publications:

Hiroshima: The Origins of Global Memory Culture, (Cambridge University Press, 2014)