Clara Momoko Geber-Mérida joined the Institute of Japanese Studies at Freie Universität Berlin in August 2019 as a lecturer and doctoral candidate.

Academic Education

• 10.2022–10.2023
  University Course in Art Law at Sigmund Freud University Vienna
• 10.2020–08.2022      
  Graduate Course in Art History in a Global Context: Focus on East Asia at Free University of Berlin (MA, Master of Arts)
• 10.2018–09.2020
  Graduate Course in Cultural Management at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (MAS, Master of Advanced Studies)
• 10.2017–04.2019
  Graduate Course in Japanese Studies at the University of Vienna (MA, Master of Arts)
• 10.2014–08.2017
  Undergraduate Course in Japanese Studies at the University of Vienna (BA, Bachelor of Arts)

Work Experience

• 10.2023–12.2023
  Research Fellow at Waseda University in Tokyo, supported by the Toshiba International Foundation Fellowship
• 10.2022–12.2022
  Research Fellow at Keio University in Tokyo, supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
• 09.2021–10.2022
  Education Mediator for Asian Art at Stiftung Humboldt Forum
• 09.2021–07.2019
  Tutor at the Institute of Japanese Studies at University of Vienna
• 11.2016–04.2019
  Internship under the guidance of court interpreter Mag. Elisabeth Plienegger in Mödling
• 06.2016–09.2018
  Japanese Language Teacher at Nihongo Gakuen Vienna
• 04.2017–07.2017
  Internship at Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung Kasachstan in Almaty
• 04.2016–08.2016
  Internship at the District Office of Arakawa in Tokyo

Honours and Awards

• 10.2023–12.2023
  Toshiba International Foundation Fellowship, issued by the European Association for Japanese Studies and the Toshiba International Foundation
• 10.2022–12.2022
  DAAD Research Fellowship for Doctoral Students, issued by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
• 10.2021–09.2022
  Deutschlandstipendium, issued by the Federal Government of Germany
• 05.2021
  Laura Bassi Scholarship, issued by Laura Bassi Editing Press
• 11.2020
  DAAD Research Fellowship for Doctoral Students, issued by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
• 2019
  Scholarship for Excellence, issued by the University of Vienna
• 12.2018
  Short-term Grant for Research Abroad, issued by the University of Vienna
• 2018
  Scholarship for Excellence, issued by the University of Vienna
• 2016
  Scholarship for Excellence, issued by the University of Vienna
• 2015
  Scholarship for Excellence, issued by the University of Vienna

Organizations

• Since 06.2023: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ostasiatische Kunst
• Since 06.2023: Deutscher Verband für Kunstgeschichte
• Since 08.2021: European Association of Japanese Studies
• Since 02.2018: Austrian Japan-Society for Science and Art

Volunteering

• 07.2017–07.2019
  Student representative (vice chairman) at the Institute of Japanese Studies at the University of Vienna

• WS 2023/24: Seminar “Japanese Art Craftsmanship and Regionalism”
• SS 2023: Seminar “Art Craftsmanship in Tokyo: History, Support Systems, Objects, and Individuals”
• WS 2022/23: Seminar “Japan and Japanese during World War II through Art Objects”
• SS 2022: Seminar “Music and Propaganda in Japan during World War II”
• WS 2021/22: Seminar “(Healing) War Trauma in Postwar Japan”
• SS 2021: Seminar “War and Peace: Japanese War Remembrance in Museums”
• WS 2020/21: Seminar “Tell Us About War: Reconstructing the Pacific War Using Oral History and Written Sources”
• SS 2020: Seminar “Japan in World War II: Representation in Art Objects”
• WS 2019/20: Seminar “Translation in its Professional Practice: Japanese-German”

Clara Momoko Geber-Mérida’s research focuses on the practice of “traditional Japanese art craftsmanship” (dentō kōgei) in Tokyo, whose production methods date back to the Edo period (1603–1868). The focus is on objects made by contemporary art craftspeople, their manufacturing philosophies, the country’s support systems for preserving specific techniques, and the prevailing precarity within the industry.

Her work incorporates her knowledge from the three fields of Japanese studies (history, culture, interviewing), cultural management (cultural economics, cultural policy, museology) and East Asian art history (object analysis, art theory).

Publications

12.2019
“Songs of Japanese Prisoners of War in the Soviet Union after World War II,” Vienna Journal of East Asian Studies 11/1, 179–211.

05.2018
„Japanische Kriegsgefangene in Kasachstan nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg: Eine historische Rekonstruktion mit Feldforschung in Almaty und Karaganda“, Minikomi – Austrian Journal of Japanese Studies 87, 33–43.

08.2017–10.2017
Eight-part series of articles on Japanese prisoners of war in the Soviet Union in the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung Kazakhstan (in German)

Academic Presentation

• 16.10.2023
  The Asiatic Society of Japan 2023 Young Scholars’ Programme (YSP)
• 24.08.2022
  18. Deutschsprachiger Japanologentag, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
• 03.11.2021
  International History of East Asia Seminar, Oxford University
• 28.08.2021
  16th International Conference of the European Association for Japanese Studies