Joshua Frydman earned his PhD in Japanese Language and Literature from Yale University in 2014. He followed this up with a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University's Reischauer Institute for Japanese Language Studies, and teaching assignments at Brown University and Brandeis University, before joining the University of Oklahoma's Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Linguistics as Assistant Professor of Japanese in 2016.
Dr. Frydman's research focuses on the origins of writing in Japan, and its effect on the creation and development of early Japanese literature, with a particular focus on archaeological inscriptions of poetry from the seventh through tenth centuries CE. His monograph on the subject, Inscribed Objects and the Development of Literature in Early Japan, is forthcoming from Brill in 2022. Dr. Frydman also has an introductory monograph on Japanese mythology, The Japanese Myths, forthcoming from Thames & Hudson in 2022. In addition to the above projects, Dr. Frydman maintains an active interest in Japanese poetry, Japanese mythology, and the material culture related to both.
Dr. Frydman regularly teaches courses in English on Japanese literature and culture, specifically Premodern Japanese Literature and Culture (MLLL 3623), Traditional Japanese Poetry and Poetics (MLLL 3683), and in some years, Anime: the World of Japanese Animation (MLLL 3673). He also teaches upper-level Japanese languages courses, including Introduction to Classical Japanese (JAPN 4543) and the Japanese Capstone (JAPN 4993).
