Dr. Mary Gilstad

Dr. Mary Gilstad received her PhD in Japanese Literature from Yale University in May 2025. Her research interests include Japanese literature, art history, bibliography, media studies, and museum studies, and her recent projects span the classical to early modern periods of Japanese literature and art, focusing on the work of anthologization in various media. Her dissertation, titled “Theorizing the Anthology: Waka Contexts and their Afterlives,” brought the canonical 10th century waka anthology the Kokin wakashū and Edo period (1603–1867) calligraphy albums (tekagami) together to argue for a way of understanding the work of the anthology as a trans-medial method of media preservation and engagement.

During her tenure at UCLA she will be working on her first book, an investigation into the theoretical work of poetic (and poetry-adjacent) anthologization in Japanese media history across the three key contexts of the waka collection, the kohitsu-gire/tekagami album, and the harimaze screen. As part of this project, she is currently working on an article investigating what she calls "structuralist" modes of reading the Kokin wakashū among Japanese and American writers of the past century, arguing that these are not merely a minor strain of criticism reflecting modern theoretical concerns but rather representative of a fundamental challenge the anthology has productively posed to its readers from its inception.

While at UCLA Mary will also be coordinating a collaborative online (digital humanities) project on Japan Past and Present to expand access to and understanding of tekagami albums among students, teachers, and researchers globally. With a target launch date of early Spring 2027, the web hub will present the Tekagami-jō held at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, complementing a print publication to be released by Bensei Press at the same time. As the online component of this project, and making full use of digital affordances, the website will present the album with searchable metadata and accessible introductory material, including guides to using the album and other online tools in a range of research applications.