Our project team in Tokyo began our work in conjunction with the Digital Access team at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. The project has enjoyed the gracious assistance of the staff at the Aoyama Gakuin Shiryo (Archives) Center. We are also closely aligned with the Aoyama Gakuin Christian Activities Center at our university, which supports a non-discriminatory and ecumenical approach to religious worship.The technical effort we are using to transition rare books into open-access digital editions is not unlike the work of early printers in the 15th and 16th centuries, who used moveable type to reproduce and distribute works that were only in manuscript form. In our age, we are faced with the challenge of making these early editions accessible to all, an effort that requires hours of hands-on work and great care.
Team Members
Professor Dabbs serves on the faculty of English and American Literature at AGU, where he teaches Shakespeare and the English Bible. Dabbs is the Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of the Japanese Association for Digital Humanities (JJADH). His research interests include early modern drama and religion.
Professor Sasakawa serves on the faculty of English and American Literature at AGU, where he teaches early 17th-century poetry, Shakespeare, and other early modern poets, with a special focus on the works of John Milton. Professor Sasakawa's research interests include the use of digital methods to explore the history of print and the history of the book during the early modern period.
In her role as Vice President at Aoyama Gakuin University, Professor Tonooka worked to bring broader recognition to AGU's programs and to promote new global initiatives. Without her help in initiating and securing funding, this project would not have been possible. She now has returned to the Department of English and American Literature at AGU. Her specializations are in American theatre, theatre theory, and gender theory.
Ms. Nagayama is an undergraduate in the AGU Department of English and American Literature. Her job duties include digital archive development, indexing, and also website management. Upon graduation she will continue her studies in American literature and culture and in cultivating qualifications in the digital humanities while working towards a Ph.D.
Ms. Filson is an undergraduate in the AGU Department of English and American Literature. Her job duties include digital archive development, indexing, and also website management. Along with completing her studies in English literature, she is also on an internship at the Monaco Government Tourist and Convention Authority in Tokyo. She aims to enter the workforce after graduation either in the area of international business or international relations.
Currently on leave to complete a course at the Shakespeare Institute, Ms. Endo will return to the project in 2023 as a Ph.D. student in English Literature at Aoyama Gakuin University. She majors in early modern drama and is currently examining the cultural history of English drama and global Shakespearean education. Her job duties will include photographing and annotating rare materials from the Aoyama Gakuin Archive.
Former Associate Members
Mr. Miyamoto is an MA student in Linguistics at Aoyama Gakuin University. His major is Generative Grammar, with a focus on research in the field of Syntax. His job duties included website and image management. He has currently left the project to focus on his primary research interest and on working towards contributing publications in his field.
Mr. Fujita joined the project as a fourth-year student at Aoyama Gakuin University. He majored in English Education and completed a Senior Thesis focusing on educational motivation theories. His job duties included digital scanning and quality control in the production of images from the Aoyama Gakuin Archive. Mr. Fujita now teaches high school English.
Ms. Yoshimura is a recent graduate of Aoyama Gakuin University. In the fall of 2019, she resumed her study of Shakespeare and British drama in the Master's program at the University of Leeds. She was part of the initial team that trained in digital photography and that digitized the Biblia Latina at AGU. Her job duties included digital scanning and quality control in the production of images from the Aoyama Gakuin Archive.