American historian
James E. Ketelaar (born November 10, 1957) is an American scholar and historian specializing in the religious, philosophical, and intellectual history of Japan. He is professor emeritus in the Department of History, the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, and the Divinity School at the University of Chicago, where he has been teaching since 1996.
He is particularly known for his academic contributions to Buddhist martyrdom in Meiji-era Japan, having been described as bringing about the "coming of age" in the study of Japan's modern religious history.
Education.
Ketelaar received a B.A. in 1978 from Kalamazoo College, where he majored in Religion and minored in Philosophy. He received his M.A. from the University of Chicago's Department of Far Eastern Languages and Civilizations in 1982, and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago's Department of Far Eastern Languages and Civilizations in 1987, where his dissertation, "Of Heretics and Martyrs: Buddhism and Persecution in Meiji Japan" would eventually become an acclaimed work in the study of Japanese religion.
Career.
Ketelaar began his career in as an assistant professor in the Department of History and Philosophy at the University of North Florida from 1987 to 1989. In 1990, he became an assistant professor at Stanford University's Department of History, where he was tenured in 1996. In 1996, he assumed the role of professor at the University of Chicago's Department of History, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, and the College. From 2013, he became an associated professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School, and in 2022, Numata Professor of Japanese Religions. Notably, in 2002 and 2003, Ketelaar was the Chair of the John Whitney Hall Book Prize selection committee. Ketelaar has also lead tours to Japan with the Smithsonian.