Dr Ruselle Meade

(she/her)

Publication

• Date
• Type

Research

My research focuses on the role of language and translation in the global circulation of knowledge, and is situated at the intersection of modern Japanese history, history of science, and translation studies. I see scientific and technical translation as sites of creativity and innovation, and have examined the practice of such translators in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century Japan. 

Past and current projects have examined the lives and writings of nineteenth-century transnational Japanese scientific figures such as Minakata Kumagusu (1867-1941) and Ishikawa Chiyomatsu (1860-1935). I was co-investigator on the UKRI-funded project, The Japanese scientist in Japan and in the world: de-centering the history of science, which explored the emergence of the ‘scientist’ as a social and professional category in Japan, and which investigated the role of transnational networks in the development of Japanese scientists’ careers.

Recently, I have started to investigate Afro-Japanese connections, both intellectual and physical (migration), with a focus on Caribbean figures. I have been examining Japanese translations of biographies of the Haitian revolutionary hero Toussaint Louverture, analysing how these have been deployed, for over a century, to provide critical commentary on Japanese domestic debates. I am also carrying out research on the experiences of West Indian seafarers in Japanese treaty ports in the late-nineteenth century.

Teaching

Module leaderships

• ML1580 Japan in Context
• ML5364 Memory & Symbols in Japan
• MLT406 Specialised Translation: Scientific and Technical
• MLT416 Specialised Translation:  Politics and Law

Teaching contributions

• ML2201 Introduction to Specialised Translation
• ML2375 Translation as a Profession
• ML1360 Culture, Political Protest and Dissent in the 1960s
• ML1365 Global Narratives of Colonialism, Slavery & their Legacies
• MLT401 Theory of Translation (postgraduate)
• MLT820 Culture, Creativity and Globalization (postgraduate)

I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Biography

Before joining Cardiff University in September 2015, I was a lecturer in Japanese studies at the University of Manchester and then a JSPS postdoctoral fellow at the University of Tokyo. I have also been a D. Kim Foundation Fellow at the Needham Research Institute in Cambridge (UK), and an AHRC Fellow at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto (Japan).

I obtained my PhD from the University of Manchester in 2013, and hold an MA from SOAS (London).

I originally trained as an engineer. After completing undergraduate studies, I moved to Tokyo where I worked for an intellectual property translation firm. This experience sparked my interest in history of technical translation – the focus of my doctoral research – and in the development of science and technology in Japan.

Supervisions

I am interested in supervising PhD students in the areas of:

• history of translation, particularly in East Asian contexts
• specialised translation (scientific and technical)
• modern Japanese history
• war memory and memorialisation

Current supervision

Qipeng Gao

Lauren Constance

Tamayo Hussey