Gavan McCormack, MA, LLB (Melb), BA (Hons), MA, PhD (Lond), FAHA
Emeritus Professor and Visiting Fellow, Division of Pacific and Asian History

Email: gavan.mccormack@anu.edu.au

Biographical Statement

Since coming to the ANU in 1990, I have worked on modern East Asian, especially Japanese, intellectual, political, and environmental history and politics. Recent publications include books on Japanese direction and identity (The Emptiness of Japanese Affluence, 1996, 2001), the constitutional debate in Japan (2001), and the North Korean problem (2004). Much of my work is translated into Japanese and quite a lot into Korean and Chinese. I have lectured widely in recent years in Australia, Japan, Korea, China, the US, Canada, and Europe. In 2003 and 2004 I was absent on leave in Japan, teaching and researching at the Institute of Social Science, International Christian University in Tokyo.

Research Interests

Modern Japanese (and East Asian) political, intellectual and environmental history; changing views of nature in the course of modernisation in Japan and East Asia, especially in respect of rivers and water; regional environmental history; struggles over the definition of past (especially China and Pacific wars) and future (beyond capitalism and the Cold War) identities in Japan; North Korea as regional and global problem in early 21st century, with especial reference to the Japan-North Korean relationship.

Key Publications

• The Emptiness of Japanese Affluence, New York, M.E. Sharpe, 1996 (Japanese, Korean and Chinese editions from Misuzu Shobo, Changi and Shanghai People's Publishing Company in 1998-99); 2nd edition, 2001.
• (ed. with Glenn Hook) Japan's Contested Constitution, Routledge, 2001.
• Target North Korea: Pushing North Korea to the Brink of Nuclear Catastrophe, New York, Nation Books, and Sydney, Random House Australia, 2004, with Japanese edition from Heibonsha, also 2004.

Career Highlights

Taught at University of Leeds (UK), La Trobe University (Melbourne) and Adelaide University before coming to the ANU in 1990; worked in Japan on many occasions since first visiting as a student in 1962; Visiting Professor at Kobe, Kyoto, Ritsumeikan, Tsubuka and International Christian Universities; elected a fellow of the Academy of Humanities of Australia in 1992; awarded the Centenary Medal "for service to Austalian Society and the Humanities in Asian Studies and History" in 2003.