Mark T. McNally

Mark T. McNally is a Professor and Director of the Center for Okinawan Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He holds a BA in Asian Studies from Pomona College (1990), and MA (1995) and PhD (1998) in History from UCLA. His research focuses on early modern Japanese social and intellectual history, including Confucianism, Kokugaku nativism, and Ryūkyū-Japan relations.

• Education: BA Pomona College, MA/PhD UCLA
• Affiliations: Center for Okinawan Studies, Department of History

His research interests span Japan’s early modern period, with emphasis on exceptionalism, transnational dynamics, race, and imperialism. Major works include Like No Other: Exceptionalism and Nativism in Early Modern Japan (2016) and studies on Ryūkyū’s political legitimacy.

Publications consistently engage with themes of cultural identity, nationalism, and intellectual conflict within pre-modern Japanese contexts. His work bridges comparative global frameworks with deep regional expertise.

• Awards: Fulbright Fellowship, Harvard Reischauer Institute Postdoc, Tokyo University Research Scholarship

Dr. McNally has held visiting professorships at Eberhard Karls University (Germany) and fellowships at institutions including UCLA and Tokyo University’s Historiographical Institute.