Adrian Gärtner M.A.

Adrian Gärtner completed his bachelor's degree in East Asian Studies with a focus on Japanese Studies and History at Heidelberg University. As part of his studies, he spent a year abroad (2014–2015) at Seikei University in Tokyo. He then pursued a master's degree in Japanese Studies and History, also in Heidelberg, during which he spent a research year (2018–2019) at Osaka University as a DAAD scholarship holder. His master's thesis examined system and societal criticism in the short stories of Murakami Haruki.

Throughout his studies, Adrian Gärtner worked as a teaching assistant at the Institute for Japanese Studies in Heidelberg. From 2013 to 2022, he was also a scholarship holder of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes). Since October 2024, he has been a research associate and PhD candidate at the Department of Modern Japanese Studies at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Chair of Modern Japanese Studies II. As part of the DFG-funded project “Traditional Craft Industries and Their Markets in 21st Century Japan – Social and Economic (Re-)Organisation”, he researches Seto and Tokoname ceramics in the Greater Nagoya Bay area.

Research Interests:

• Literature and (popular) culture / media

• Literary theory / narratology

• Traditional Japanese craftsmanship

• Ceramics and traditional occupations in urban spaces