Christopher Shumard

M.A. Student

Contact
Department of History
Email: cshumar@clemson.edu

Education
B.A., Clemson University (2021)

Research Interests
Modern Japan since 1868; cultural/group identity, nationalism

Christopher Shumard is a graduate student in the History MA Program at Clemson University. He graduated with a BA in History from Clemson University in 2021 and is slated to defend his MA thesis in History in 2023. His intellectual interests are broadly centered around cultural and national identity. Specifically, he engages with the question of why humans tend towards adhering to group identity.

His research interests specifically deal with Modern Japan, following the Meiji Restoration in 1868 to the present. His Master’s Thesis analyzes the history of minority groups and their shifting identity throughout Modern Japanese History. In the context of the normative narrative of a homogenous Japanese nation, he contends that the existence of and experiences of minority groups in Japan prove otherwise. These groups are the Ainu, Burakumin, Zainichi Koreans, and Okinawans. He argues that their experiences as minorities demonstrates an innate human desire towards group identity. Their history, in his view, is one of a constant search for, or creation of, a group identity to ensure survival underneath the larger threat of another group, the Japanese nation.