Gennifer Weisenfeld

Gennifer Weisenfeld received her Ph.D. from Princeton University in Japanese Art History. Her field of research is modern and contemporary Japanese art history, design, and visual culture. Her work explores the impact of Japan's modern sociopolitical transformations on artistic production and practice; the cultural formations of nation and empire building; Japanese modernism; the politics of the avant-garde; the visual culture of disaster; commercial design; and the relationship between high art and popular culture.

Current Appointments & Affiliations

Walter H. Annenberg Distinguished Professor of Art and Art History · 2024 - Present Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Professor in the Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies · 2013 - Present Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Core Faculty in the Asian/Pacific Studies Institute · 1998 - Present University Initiatives & Academic Support Units

In the News

Published May 4, 2023

Duke Awards 44 Distinguished Professorships

Published March 2, 2023

’Gas Mask Nation‘ Explores Japan’s Wartime Air Defense Campaigns

Published February 14, 2023

Spring Books from Duke Authors from Wittgenstein to Capoeira

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Recent Publications

The Fine Art of Persuasion: Corporate Advertising Design, Nation, and Empire in Modern Japan

Book · 2025 Commercial art is more than just mass-produced publicity; it constructs social and political ideologies that impact the public’s everyday life. In The Fine Art of Persuasion, Gennifer Weisenfeld examines the evolution of Japanese advertising graphic design ... Full text Open Access Cite

The Complete Commercial Artist: Making Modern Design in Japan, 1928-1930

Book · January 2, 2024 A delightful, eye-opening journey through an ambitious periodical that helped shape graphic design in Japan, with introductory texts by arthistorian Gennifer Weisenfeild and colorful facsimile highlights from all 24 original volumes ... ... Cite

Gas Mask Nation: Visualizing Civil Air Defense in Wartime Japan

Book · 2023 Gas Mask Nation explores the multilayered construction of an anxious yet perversely pleasurable visual culture of Japanese civil air defense—or bōkū—through a diverse range of artworks, photographs, films and newsreels, magazine illustrations, postcards, c ... Cite

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Education, Training & Certifications

Princeton University · 1997 Ph.D.

Princeton University · 1992 M.A.

Wesleyan University · 1987 B.A.