Kristopher Reeves

Kristopher Reeves serves as an Associate Professor at Waseda University's School of Culture, Media and Society, specializing in premodern Sino-Japanese comparative studies with a focus on Sinitic poetry. After completing his PhD in Japanese Literature from Columbia University in 2018, where he studied under Haruo Shirane, he worked at the National Institute of Japanese Literature before joining Waseda. His research centers on literary heteroglossia and Chinese-style poetry (kanshi) composed by Japanese writers in the ninth and tenth centuries, with particular attention to private family anthologies (shikashū). His scholarly work examines how these anthologies transformed earlier genres of Chinese-style poetry by incorporating elements from waka verse traditions, while also analyzing their sociopolitical implications. Through his teaching, Reeves encourages students to explore Japanese culture, literature, and intellectual history from a comparative perspective within the broader East Asian cultural context. He has published extensively on topics ranging from Heian-period Sinitic writing to comparative studies of purgatory narratives in premodern Japan and China, demonstrating his expertise in both classical Japanese literature and East Asian comparative studies.