Prof. Dr. Judit Árokay is a W3 Professor at the Institute for Japanese Studies of the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg. She earned her doctorate at the University of Hamburg in 1998 with a thesis on classical Japanese women's poetry, later completing her habilitation at Freie Universität Berlin in 2007. Her academic journey includes research assistant roles at the University of Hamburg (1998–2004) and Freie Universität Berlin (2004–2007). Education: Master's in German and English at Eötvös Loránd University (1990), studied Japanese and Sinology at University of Hamburg (until 1994) Research Focus: Classical and Medieval Japanese Literature, Poetology, Cultural Semiotics, Intertextuality Árokay's research explores how poetic devices and intertextual references shaped Japanese literature, especially in the Edo and Heian periods. She emphasizes gender dynamics and linguistic evolution in cultural contexts. Her Digital Literary Map of Japan project (since 2016) catalogs utamakura (poetic spots) to preserve intertextual literary geography. This bilingual (Japanese-English) web application, supported by institutions in Japan and Germany, enables scholarly access to Japan's literary heritage. Árokay's editorial work includes co-founding the journal Bunron (Text and Theory) in 2014, focusing on multilingual literary studies. Her publications span monographs on poetic renewal, translations of classical texts, and analyses of gender and cultural theory in Japanese literature.










