Susan J. Pharr is Edwin O. Reischauer Professor of Japanese Politics, Director of Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies and the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations at Harvard University. She joined the faculty in 1987, and served as chair of the Government Department, 1992-95, and as Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, 1996-98. Until 1986, she was on the faculty of the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. From 1985-87, on a leave from Wisconsin, she held the Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

        Much of her research has explored the social basis for democracy in Japan. Her research interests include comparative political behavior; comparative politics of industrial nations; democratization and social change in Japan and Asia; political development; civil society and nonprofit organizations; political ethics and corruption; environmental politics; the role of the media in politics; the role of Japan and the United States in development; international relations in East Asia; and international political economy of development. Her current research focuses on the forces shaping civil societies, and the changing nature of relations between citizens and states in Asia.

Contact information:

1730 Cambridge Street, Room S238
Cambridge, MA 02138
tel. (617) 495-9992
fax (617) 495-1285

email: Susan_Pharr@harvard.edu

Please send comments or corrections for this site to:  jnoveck@wcfia.harvard.edu