Jens Sejrup

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Jens Sejrup is a tenure-track assistant professor, jointly appointed by the departments of Anthropology, and Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies. He holds a Ph.D. in Asian Studies as well as an M.A. in Japanese Studies (Univ. of Copenhagen). Jens has authored a number of research publications on Japanese museum architecture and cultural heritage, political rhetoric, ideological uses of the past, and the role of the news media for postcolonial controversies in contemporary Japan-Taiwan relations. He co-authored and co-edited the book Global Art in Local Art Worlds: Changing Hierarchies of Value (Routledge, 2023) and guest edited a special issue of the Journal of Transcultural Studies (2020). His other publications include single-authored research articles in the International Journal of Cultural Studies, Pacific Affairs, Museum History Journal, Social Science Japan Journal, and Public Relations Inquiry, and a book chapter in Japanese Taiwan: Colonial Rule and its Contested Legacy (Bloomsbury, 2015). In addition, Jens engages very actively in outreach activities. Besides giving public presentations and introductions, he is a frequently used commentator and analyst of Japanese and East Asian current affairs in national Danish television and radio as well as in various print media. Jens is an appointed member of the national corps of external examiners for Japanese Studies under the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science, and also serves as a member of the Steering Committee of the Nordic Association for the Study of Contemporary Japanese Society (NAJS). Jens was the recipient of the 2014 EastAsiaNet Award for Best Academic Article, as well as the 2012 Young Scholar Award (1st place) from the European Association of Taiwan Studies.

Primary fields of research

Modern societies of Japan and East Asia. Interactions between Asian societies as well as historical and present-day Euro-Japanese connections. Japanese museums, architecture, and cultural heritage. Postcolonialism in East Asia. Uses of history and present-day instrumentalizations of the past. Japanese mass media, news narratives, and public and political rhetoric. Critical approaches to Asia and Asian studies. Representation and narratives. 

Current research

Historical reconstructions and recreated cultural heritage in Japan. Reconstructed buildings and urban environments as museums and exhibitionary spaces.