Stephen M. Forrest

Senior Lecturer
Japanese Undergraduate Advisor
Japanese Exchange Program Director

Japanese Faculty
Stephen M. Forrest
Contact
Email
Email
Phone
Location
Herter Hall 441

Office Hours

  • Monday 2:30 - 3:30
    Tuesday 5:30 - 6:30
    Wednesday 1:30 - 2:30
    & by Appointment (in-person or Zoom)

Profile

Steve Forrest has been teaching Japanese literature and language at UMass Amherst since 1998. Responsibilities include pre-modern and modern language and literature, with a special focus on premodern scripts (kuzushiji 崩し字 and hentaigana 変体仮名). Ongoing translation and database projects focus on the print culture of the Edo period (especially visual-verbal popular texts).

Doctoral dissertation, "The model life of an eccentric poet: Nōin Hōshi and Nōin shū" (2005).

PhD, Harvard University, East Asian Languages & Civilizations (Japanese Literature).

BA (Hons) Oriental Studies (Japanese), University of Oxford. 

Research Areas

  • Edo-period print culture
  • Literature of travel in pre-modern Japan
  • Manuscript and authentic texts in language pedagogy and related digital humanities projects
  • Classical Japanese poetry collections and poetic theory
  • the literature and culture of Hokkaidō

Courses Recently Taught

  • Japanese 144: Premodern and modern Japanese literature
  • Japanese197M: Study abroad - Japan
  • Japanese 197P: Introduction to Contemporary Japan (summer course taught in Japan)
  • Japanese 297K & 397K: Elementary & Intermediate Kanji
  • Japanese 397T: Hokkaidō Summer Seminar (summer course taught in Japan)
  • Japanese 497C: Readings in Modern Japanese
  • Japanese 532: Media Japanese I
  • Japanese 556 & 557: Classical Japanese I & II
  • Japanese 570: Research in Japanese sources
  • Japanese 597A: Manuscript Japanese
  • Japanese 691A: Graduate Seminar
  • Proseminars on Edo period texts (recent topics: kaidan 怪談, gōkan 合巻)