James B Lewis

James B Lewis is an Associate Professor of Korean History at the University of Oxford, affiliated with Wolfson College and the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. His research focuses on Korean-Japanese relations before 1850, economic and social histories of premodern Korea and Japan, global history, and environmental/epidemiological dynamics in East Asia. He has held leadership roles as past President of the Association for Korean Studies in Europe and the British Association for Korean Studies.

His grants include an ERC Horizon 2020 project (grant 758347). Current projects involve co-authoring An Economic History of Korea, 1400 to 1900 and translating Amenomori Hôshû's Kôrin Teisei. Courses taught include Korean-Japanese history surveys, research methodologies, and classical texts analysis.

His publications span monographs, edited volumes, and peer-reviewed articles, emphasizing quantitative methods, archival analysis, and cross-disciplinary approaches. Notable works include Frontier contact between Chosŏn Korea and Tokugawa Japan (2003), The East Asian War, 1592-1598 (2015), and studies on Korean economic indicators across centuries. Public lectures and media engagements include talks at the Ricci Institute and the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation.