Prof. Gross wins short-term residency in Japan

Gross will spend two weeks at Kyoto University -By Gilien Silsby Ariela Gross, a civil rights, race and legal history scholar, is one of three historians nationwide selected by two scholarly organizations for a short-term residence in Japan. As recipient of the 2010 residency in the history of race and racial ideology, Gross will spend two weeks at Kyoto University teaching and lecturing in Japan in June. The project is sponsored by the Organization of American Historians and the Japanese Association for American Studies. “I’m thrilled to return to Kyoto – where I lived 20 years ago – and to have the chance to get to know Japanese faculty and students interested in the history of race,” Gross said. “I expect to learn a great deal!” The Organization of American Historians promotes excellence in the scholarship, teaching, and presentation of American history, and encourages wide discussion of historical questions. The Japanese Association for American Studies promotes American studies in Japan through publications and activities encouraging communication and cooperation among American scholars. This is the second time a USC Law professor has been given the OAH/JAAS Short-term Residency Award. In 2000, USC Law Prof. Mary L. Dudziak won the distinction and taught a two-week course at Hokkaido University in political and intellectual history. Gross has recently won much acclaim for her book, What Blood Won’t Tell: A History of Race on Trial in America (Harvard University Press, 2008). After spending years unearthing the legal history of racial identity, Gross recounts stories of racial identity trials in American courts, from the early republic well into the 20th century.