Doris G. Bargen, Ph.D. from Eberhard-Karls Universitat, Tübingen, Germany, 1978. Bargen has published in three areas of interdisciplinary research: the Japanese classics (A Woman’s Weapon: Spirit Possession in The Tale of Genji, 1997), the early modern Bakumatsu and Meiji/Taishô periods (Suicidal Honor: General Nogi and the Writings of Mori Ôgai and Natsume Sôseki, 2006), and postwar literature and culture (articles in Monumenta Nipponica, the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, and in The Woman’s Hand). She received a Choice Book Award (1997), a UMass Faculty Research Grant (Healey) and grants from the Fulbright Commission, the Social Science Research Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Japan Foundation. She has developed courses at all levels, including a yearlong capstone honors seminar on "Sacrifice and Martyrdom in Japanese Culture." Most recent research interests focus on courtship in the art, architecture, and literature of Heian Japan.