Karen Fraser received her Ph.D. in Japanese art history from Stanford University in 2006. She specializes in modern Japanese visual culture, and her current research focuses on early Japanese photography.  She is particularly interested in domestic photography production and consumption; the relationship of photography to contemporary discourses shaping class, gender, regional, and national identity; and the uses of photography in international exchange. While at the Sainsbury Institute she will be working on a book manuscript on one of Japan's first photography studios titled The Tomishige Studio:  A Regional Study of Commercial Photography in Meiji Japan.  Other research interests include Japanese prints and museum and exhibition history in both the West and in Japan. + k.fraser@sainsbury-institute.org

Naoko Gunji specializes in pre-modern Japanese art history, with particular interest in the ritual functions of art and architecture. In the summer of 2007, she finished her doctoral dissertation that examined the art, architecture, and rituals related to mortuary ceremonies for Emperor Antoku and the Taira at the Buddhist temple Amidaji in Shimonoseki City in Yamaguchi Prefecture. During her fellowship, she is working on a book project based upon her dissertation and two articles, "Evoking and Appeasing Spirits: Portraits of Emperor Antoku and the Taira and the Illustrated Story of Emperor Antoku in Ritual Context" and "The Separation of Shinto; and Buddhist Divinities at Akama Shrine: Changing Rituals on the Anniversary of Emperor Antoku's Death." + n.gunji@sainsbury-institute.org

A native Muscovite and graduate of Moscow State University (Department of Art History), Evgeny Steiner began his professional career in the Pushkin Museum for Fine Arts while being a graduate student. It was then and there that he had his first exposure to ukiyo-e. He earned his Ph.D. at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences (the dissertation was written on the collective/group performative character of a creative act in Mediaeval Japan and was centered on shigajiku and renga). He has also earned a Higher Doctorate from the Institute for Cultural Research (Moscow, 2002). Professor Steiner has taught and conducted research in the field of Japanese and Russian art history and cultural studies at a number of world universities (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1991-1994; Sophia University, Tokyo, 1994-1995; Meiji Gakuin University, Yokohama, 1996-1997; New York University, 1999-present; State University of New York, 2002-2005; the Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Fall 2006). Before moving to London to assume the position in Sainsbury Institute/SOAS Evgeny spent a year in Manchester as a Leverhulme visiting professor. In London Evgeny plans to work on his ongoing project of preparing a catalogue of Japanese prints of the Pushkin Museum for publication. Upon completion of his sojourn, Evgeny is to move in January 2008 to Moscow to finish the catalogue project and to accept the offer from the Pushkin Museum to oversee its collections of Japanese art as a principal research fellow. In the field of ukiyo-e Prof. Steiner's research interests highlight surimono for the collective/ritualistic nature of this art form and for its rich potentials for the study of the complementary relationship of poetic and visual texts in Japanese artistic culture. + evenbach@gmail.com