Theme:

This project explores the global reconfiguration of modernity in the nineteenth century by moving beyond national frameworks and rethinking Eurocentric, imperial, and colonial paradigms. Rather than treating modernity as a fixed or universally shared model, it approaches it as a historically contingent and culturally mediated process shaped by diverse forms of representation, media, and embodied practices across different cultural contexts.

Focusing on shared structural patterns—such as narrative forms, media regimes, and modes of affect—the project examines how modern experience was produced, negotiated, and communicated through texts, images, and embodied practices. It also engages with recent approaches in global history, environmental history, and posthuman studies, with particular attention to translation practices, cross-regional circulation, and the reconfiguration of cultural models.

The project aims to develop a multi-layered understanding of the global nineteenth century while preserving the historical specificity of local contexts.

Key Goals  

• Rethink modernity in the nineteenth century beyond national frameworks and Eurocentric and imperial paradigms by examining its global reconfiguration across diverse cultural contexts.
• Explore new methodological approaches for global research by comparing media regimes, narrative patterns, and cross-regional circulation, and by examining how these structures are translated, reconfigured, and negotiated across different cultural contexts.
• Establish a collaborative platform for interdisciplinary exchange, integrating insights from global history, literary studies, environmental history, and posthuman studies through international networks and accessible research formats.

Activities and Initiatives

• JSPS-funded research project “A Comprehensive Study on the Melodramatic Imagination in Russian and Former Soviet Culture” (FY2019–2023) — developing globally oriented and comparative approaches to the study of modern cultural formations, the body, and affect.
• “Survival Strategies” research platform at the Slavic-Eurasian Research Center (Hokkaido University) (FY2022–2026) — rethinking modernity through interdisciplinary collaboration and international exchange.
• CNCSI-Japan Hub (est. 2025) — building a network that connects global and local perspectives to develop interdisciplinary approaches to nineteenth-century studies.

Theme Leaders: Global Modernities

Daisuke Adachi (Slavic-Eurasian Research Center, Hokkaido University)

Olha Romanova, PhD, is a researcher at the Shevchenko Institute of Literature of the National Academy of
Sciences of Ukraine. Her academic interests include world literature, literary theory, and comparative studies.