:: Shingetsu Institute ::

Michael Penn

Michael Penn was born in Los Angeles on June 21, 1970. He spent his early life in southern California until he graduated from the University of California Santa Barbara with a BA in History in 1992. He did his postgraduate work at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies of the University of Texas at Austin. His MA thesis was completed in 1996 and focused on the topic of modern art and politics in Iraq

From June 1997, Mr. Penn arrived on Japanese shores, studied the local language, and started to examine Japanese relations with the Islamic world. By April 2000, he accepted a fulltime teaching position at The University of Kitakyushu which provided him with sufficient income and free time to devote himself to this research.

Sensing the relative institutional weakness of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies in Japan, he founded the Shingetsu Institute for the Study of Japanese-Islamic Relations in August 2004 together with several of his close Japanese colleagues. He has served as the institute’s Executive Director since that time and has primary responsibility for running the institute and issuing the Shingetsu Newsletter.

Currently, Mr. Penn lives alone in his apartment in the city of Kitakyushu and divides his energies between his teaching responsibilities at the university, running the Shingetsu Institute, and support of the Restaurant Ertugrul, the only Turkish or Muslim restaurant on the island of Kyushu, which he himself helped set up in central Kokura in August 2006.

Main Publications

The following is a list of Michael Penn’s main academic publications, updated through the end of 2007. They are listed chronologically, from oldest to most recent.

Michael Penn, “Japanese Educational Manga and the Representation of Islam,” Bulletin: Showa Pharmaceutical University, Vol. 34, March 2000.

Michael Penn, “The Reification of Power: The Political Meaning of Victory Monuments in Ancient Sumer and Contemporary Iraq,” Journal of Law and Political Science, University of Kitakyushu, April 2000.

Michael Penn, “The Last Months of the Ertugrul: Yokohama, Tokyo, and the Miura Peninsula: An Essay Presented on the Occasion of the 110^th Anniversary of the Ertugrul Tragedy,” pamphlet, Kitakyushu, September 2000.

Michael Penn, “Amerika no Tero Hofuku Senso ni tsuite Nihonjin ga Shirubeki koto (What Japanese Should Know about America’s War of Retaliation),” pamphlet, Kitakyushu, December 2001.

Michael Penn, “Japanese Policy toward Rogue States in the Middle East,” Journal of Middle East Politics and Society, Myongji University, Vol. 3, February 2002.

Michael Penn, “Bridges across Asia: The Istanbul-Shimonoseki Sister City Agreement,” Language and Culture, Yamaguchi Kitakyushu Language and Culture Association, No. 11, March 2003.

Michael Penn, “Daigaku Kaikaku to Gaikokujin Kyoshi (University Reform and Foreign Lecturers),” pamphlet, Kitakyushu, August 2003.

Michael Penn, “Kindai Nihon to Isuramu Shakai no Deai—Nihon-Nishi-Ajia no Shoki no Kankei ni kan suru Kenkyu (Modern Japan’s Encounter with Islam: Research on Early Japan-West Asian Relations),” Higashi Ajia Kenkyu, No. 7, May 2004.

Michael Penn, “Egyptianizing Korea: The Role of the Egypt Analogy in Meiji Japanese Political Thought,” in The 13th KAMES and the 5th AFMA International Symposium: Middle East, Asia and Islam, October 2004.

Michael Penn, “First Contact: The Story of the Zadkia,” Japanese Studies, Vol. 24, No. 3, December 2004.

Michael Penn, Shingetsu Bibliography of Japanese-Islamic Relations, First Edition, Shingetsu Institute, Kitakyushu, April 2005.

Michael Penn, “The Battle of Azadegan: Japan, Oil, and Independence,” Japan Focus, No. 379, August 2005.

Michael Penn, “The Roots of the Japanese Oil Victory in Libya,” Japan Focus, No. 432, October 2005.

Michael Penn, “Islam in Japan: Adversity and Diversity,” Harvard Asia Quarterly, Vol. X, No. 1, Winter 2006.

Michael Penn, “Japan’s Persian Gulf Policies in the Koizumi Era,” Foreign Policy in Focus Policy Report, June 30, 2006.

Michael Penn, “Oil and Power: The Rise and Fall of the Japan-Iran Partnership in Azadegan,” Japan Focus, No. 708, December 2006.

Michael Penn, “East Meets East: An Ottoman Mission in Meiji Japan,” Princeton Papers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, No. 14, January 2007.

Michael Penn, “The U.S.-Japan Security Alliance and the GSDF Mission in Iraq,” Shingetsu Electronic Journal of Japanese-Islamic Relations, No. 1, March 2007.

Michael Penn, “Tokyo’s Energy Strategy in the Gulf Region after Azadegan,” Gulf-Asia Research Bulletin, No. 2, July 2007.