We congratulate Professor Thomas D. Conlan on being awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in the field of East Asian Studies.

He is among 198 distinguished and diverse group of culture-creators working across 53 disciplines chosen this year. Appointed on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise, the candidates were chosen from a group of almost 3,500 applicants in the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation’s 100th competition.

His project, From Lands of Gold to Isles of Silver: Precious Metals, Trade, and State Formation in Japan 500-1700, focuses on Japan and to a lesser degree Korea and China, reveals the hitherto under-appreciated significance of precious metals in northeast Asia. It explains how relatively limited exchanges of gold in the eighth century gave way to extensive copper trading in the fifteenth, which in turn was overshadowed by silver exports in the sixteenth century. Ultimately, political and intellectual changes in Japan led to a devaluation of Japanese silver and a decline in its trade over the course of the seventeenth century. He will spend the 2025-26 academic year researching and writing this new monograph. 

Source Official Announcement from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation