Jon Davidann PH.D.
College of Liberal Arts - Department of History, Humanities, and International Studies
Professor of History
Dr. Jon Davidann is a professor of history and chair of the History, Humanities, and International Studies Department at Hawai’i Pacific University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1995 in United States and Japanese history. He has won prizes for both his teaching and research. Davidann was a visiting fellow at Oxford University’s Harris Manchester College in 2008. Davidann has given many invited lectures internationally. He gave the keynote Address at a Global History Conference in Istanbul in June 2018. He also served as a KAKENHI scholar in Japan in May 2017 and again in December 2018, and as a Fulbright Scholar in October 2017 in Ghent, Belgium. While in Belgium, he gave the keynote address at the conference Paradigms of Change in Modernising Asia and America at Ghent University and another keynote address as the Satsuma Chair at Catholic University in Leuven. He teaches courses on American cultural diplomacy, global history, the history of oil and sustainability, and the history of economic crisis. Dr. Davidann’s brainchild, History Lens, a video podcast on ThinkTech Hawaii, takes on current concerns such as impeachment, white supremacy, immigration, gun control, and taxes, and puts them in historical perspective. He is co-host of the show along with Jay Fidell. He has a devoted following on LinkedIn where his History Lens video podcasts typically receive several thousand views. Davidann lives in Kailua with his wife Beth, son Eli, and their dog, Neilani. His hobbies are bicycling, SUP, and reading.
Publications:
Monograph, The Limits of Westernization: American and East Asian Intellectuals Create Modernity, 1860-1960. London: Routledge, 2019. Winner of the Kenneth W. Baldridge Prize, 2020
Textbook, Cross-Cultural Encounters in Modern World History, 1453-Present. Second Edition published by Routledge, March 2019
Edited Book, Hawai`i at the Crossroads of the U.S. and Japan before the Pacific War, edited by Jon Davidann. University of Hawai`i Press, September 2008.
Monograph, Cultural Diplomacy in U.S. - Japanese Relations, 1919-1941. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, December 2007.
Edited Book, TransPacific Relations: America, Europe, and Asia in the Twentieth Century, edited by Jon Davidann, Richard Jensen, and Yone Sugita. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2003.
Monograph, A World of Crisis and Progress: The American YMCA in Japan, 1890-1930, Bethlehem, PA: Lehigh University Press and Associated University Presses, April 1998.
