Jurgis S.A. Elisonas

J.S.A. Elisonas was born in Lithuania, began his secondary education in Germany and finished his university training in America.  He is a specialist in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Japanese history and in the history of Japan’s contacts with Europe in the premodern era.  His best-known work, which he published under his cognomen, George Lison, is titled Devis Destroyed: The Image of Christianity in Early Modern Japan.  His academic career has largely been spent on the faculty of Indiana University, which he joined in 1975, but he has also held visiting appointments at Harvard University, the University of Hawaii, Kyoto University, Leiden University, Rikkyo University, and at Williams College, where he was the Boskey Visiting Professor of History in 2001-2002.  Elisonas is a frequent participant in scholarly symposia in Europe, and his most recent research has been published in Portugal and the Netherlands.