Government and Legal Studies
Henry C.W. Laurence
Hubbard Hall Directory
Affiliation: Government and Legal Studies, Asian Studies, Japanese
Associate Professor of Government and Asian Studies
Henry Laurence is an associate professor of Government at Bowdoin College, Maine, U.S.A. where he has also served as director of the Asian Studies Program.
He received a Ph.D. in Political Science from Harvard University and a BA from Oriel College, Oxford University. In 2007-2008 he was a Research Associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University and a Senior Associate Member of the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies at St. Antony's College, Oxford. He has also been affiliated with the Institute for Social Sciences at the University of Tokyo, and the U.S.-Japan Relations Program at Harvard University.
Dr. Laurence's current research is on media and politics in Britain, Japan, and the USA. He is working on a political history of public broadcasters including the BBC, NHK, PBS and NPR. He serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of the International Journal of Digital Television and is the author of Money Rules: the New Politics of Finance in Britain and Japan (Cornell University Press 2001).
Publications and Media Appearances
"Thoughts on Brexit" Bowdoin Daily Sun (July 2016)
'"Will Pokémon Go Power Up Japan's Cool Economy?" The Japan Times July 31 2016. Op-ed on the political economy of Japan's creative industries.'
Chapter on the 'Political Economy of Digital Television Transition in Japan and the USA: How Well can a Coordinated Market Economy Solve a Coordination Problem?' in Shiping Hui and Ruiha Hu (eds) The East Asian Development Model (Routledge 2015)
A piece in The Diplomat on political interference at NHK, Japan's public broadcaster (Feb 8 2014)
'Digital Television and Technology Diffusion' in International Journal of Digital Television Vol. 2 Issue 3 (Sept 2011)
Henry Laurence on NPR January 23: The World According to Japan (2006)
Entry 'The British Broadcasting Corporation' in Mark Jurgensmayer and Helmut Anheier (Eds.) Encyclopedia of Global Studies (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2010).
Academic Spotlight: Professor Gives High Definition to Digital Debate
Censorship at PBS and NHK
Paper comparing Japanese censorship of a documentary on the Comfort Women with the Bush administration's censorship of a children's cartoon show featuring a lesbian couple. JPRI CritiqueVol. XII, No. 3 (April 2005)
Images of Japan on American TV
Paper presented to the Japan Media Communications Center (JAMCO) 2005 On-line International Symposium
The Japanese Princess Bride: (Listen to Audio)
Interview on the Japanese Royal Family, National Public Radio "On Point"
Show Originally Aired: November 16th 2005.
The Big Bang and the Sokaiya
The Japan Policy Research Institute, which has an on-line version of a paper I wrote on the "Sokaiya" (corporate blackmailers). JPRI Critique Vol. VI No. 8 (August 1999)
My Feb 1999 speech on prospects for the Japanese Economy (campus news)
I'm quoted in a story about terrorism in the Baltimore Sun: Making peace with terror, Lessons from those who live where death is a way of life. September 16, 2001
Selected Syllabi
Japanese Politics (PDF)
Global Media and Politics (PDF)
International Political Economy (PDF)
Human Rights and Democracy in East Asia (PDF)
Letter of Recommendation Instructions
Instructions for Requests for Letters of Recommendation for HL
1) Please do ALL the paperwork and administrative work you can including (if possible) filling in my title, address, etc. on on-line forms. Please don't make me fill forms out or mail things if you can possibly avoid it. I don't have secretarial assistance and am hopelessly disorganized!
2) Write me an email containing all the classes you've taken with me including names, semester/year and final grade.
3) Remind me of any particularly good pieces of work you did for me, giving details of what it was and what I said about it (if you can remember).
4) Please write to remind me about it a week before the deadline, and again 2 days before the deadline.
*** Don't feel bad about writing to me multiple times, I will appreciate reminders!!!**
5) Please follow up to let me know what happened if/when you hear/decide.
PhD, Harvard University, 1996
MA, Harvard University
BA, Oriel College, 1985