Haruko Nawata Ward is a religious historian currently teaching church history at Columbia Theological Seminary. She is known primarily for her work on women religious leaders, history of Christianity in Asia, history of the Christian Reformation, encounter of cultures and religions and justice issues throughout the history of the church.[4]
Ward, "a self-proclaimed feminist historian,"[5] is most widely known for her research on women throughout the history of the Christian church who have been largely ignored, especially in Asia. She states the "social historians have surveyed the activities of lay Kirishitan male leaders, but not paid attention to their female counterparts."[6] In this research Ward seeks to re-emphasize the voice of women throughout history and to reinterpret Christian history through these voices. Additionally, her work also seeks to reveal how the "Christian mission had a significant cultural and social impact on Japan"[7] throughout its history.
Works
Women Religious Leaders of Japan’s Christian Century: 1549–1650. Series Women and Gender in the Early Modern World. Aldershot, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2009.[5][6][7][8][9](Nominated for Gordon Book Prize from the Renaissance Society of America in 2009.)
Christian Theology of Martyrdom and Women Martyrs in Early Modern Japan (In Progress).
^Ward, Haruko Nawata (2001). Women and the Jesuits in the Christian Century (1549–1650) in Japan (doctoral dissertation). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton Theological Seminary. ProQuest276243423.
^Ward, Haruko Nawata (2001). Women and the Jesuits in the Christian Century (1549–1650) in Japan (doctoral dissertation). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton Theological Seminary. p. 1. ProQuest276243423.
^Ryan, James (2010). "Review Reviewed Work: Women Religious Leaders in Japan's Christian Century, 1549–1650 by Haruko Nawata Ward". Renaissance Quarterly. 63 (3). The University of Chicago Press: 943–945. doi:10.1086/656969. JSTOR10.1086/656969. S2CID162348854.