معرفی
David Leheny is Professor in the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies at Waseda University in Tokyo. Previously he held faculty positions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Assistant & Associate Professor of Political Science) and Princeton University (Henry Wendt III ’55 Professor of East Asian Studies). He is also listed as an affiliated member of Cornell’s Society for the Humanities and the College of Arts and Sciences.
Education
- Ph.D. in Government, Cornell University (1998)
- M.A. in Government, Cornell University (1994)
- B.A. in Government, Wesleyan University (1989)
Research Focus
Leheny’s work integrates political science, cultural studies, and area studies to examine how culture, affect, and narrative shape politics in East Asia—especially Japan. His current project, “Scaling Affects: Digital Garden Cities and Imagining Lives in Contemporary Japan,” investigates the affective politics of Japan’s new rural-repopulation schemes, analyzing how policy discourse reimagines rural towns as scaled-down versions of metropolitan life. He also explores cases such as the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 state funeral of Abe Shinzō to interrogate the intersection of emotion, narrative, and political legitimacy.
Publications & Impact
Leheny is the author of three monographs with Cornell University Press—Empire of Hope: The Sentimental Politics of Japanese Decline (2018), Think Global, Fear Local: Sex, Violence, and Anxiety in Contemporary Japan (2006), and The Rules of Play: National Identity and the Making of Japanese Leisure (2003)—and co-editor of Japanese Aid and the Construction of Global Development (Routledge, 2010). His dozens of journal articles and book chapters have advanced debates on Japanese politics, East-Asian security, and the cultural dimensions of international relations.
Honors & Fellowships
- Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowships
- Harvard U.S.–Japan Advanced Research Fellowship
- Smith Richardson National Security Fellowship
- Abe Fellowship
- Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award (UW-Madison)
- Toshiba International Prize
- Cotsen Faculty Fellowship (Princeton)
- Toyota Visiting Professorship (University of Michigan)
Service & Professional Roles
Leheny serves as co-editor (with Amitav Acharya) of the Studies in Asian Security series at Stanford University Press and sits on the editorial board of the American Political Science Review. He has held advisory roles for the Japan Foundation and the Institute of Social Science at the University of Tokyo, and previously worked as a Regional Affairs Officer for Counterterrorism at the U.S. Department of State.
