Robin Kietlinski

About

Robin Kietlinski is a professor of History at LaGuardia Community College. Her research focuses on modern Japan, with projects ranging from socio-historical examinations of sport and the Olympics in Japan to the history of the US-Japan relationship. She has published extensively on the ways in which the Olympics have shaped modern Japan, and how Japan has shaped the modern Olympic Movement, including her 2012 book titled Japanese Women and Sport: Beyond Baseball and Sumo (Bloomsbury Academic Press). Dr. Kietlinski was a 2019/2022 Fulbright Research Scholar at the University of Tsukuba, where she carried out research on Olympic sustainability initiatives and Olympic dissent groups. Prior to joining LaGuardia’s faculty in 2012, she taught history at Baruch College and Fordham University. She holds a B.A. from the University of Chicago and received her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, all in interdisciplinary programs of East Asian Languages and Civilizations.

Select publications by Dr. Kietlinski include:

• “For the Planet and the People: Shintō, the Environment, and the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.” Chapter in edited volume. Frost, Dennis and Stephen Covell, Eds. Religion and Sport in Japan. University of Hawai’i Press, 2024.
• “’A Strong, Sustainable Legacy:’ The Environment and Japan’s Winter Olympics.” Chapter in edited volume. Dichter, Heather and Sarah Teetzel, Eds. The Olympic Winter Games at 100: Challenges, Complexities, and Legacies. Routledge, 2024.
• “From Three-Legged to Two-Legged Races: The Rise of Competitive Women’s Sport in Japan (1910s-20s).” Handbook of Sport and Japan. Macnaughtan and Postlethwaite, Eds. Amsterdam University Press, 2024.
• “Environment Eclipsed: Tokyo 2020 Sustainability Initiatives and the Pandemic Postponement.” Chapter in Sports Mega-Events in Asia. Kobayashi et al, Eds. Palgrave, 2023.
• “ ‘A Strong, Sustainable Legacy:’ The Environment and Japan’s Winter Olympics.” The International Journal of the History of Sport. August 2021.
• “What the Olympics Mean to Japan.” The Diplomat (cover story). August 1, 2021.
• “The Trailblazing Woman on the Japanese Olympic Committee who Called for Postponement.” Chapter in edited volume. Krieger et al, Eds. Time Out: National Perspectives on Sport and the Covid-19 Lockdown. Champaign, IL: Common Ground Research Network, 2021.
• “Trash Islands: The Olympic Games and Tokyo’s Changing Environment.” The Asia-Pacific Journal. Volume 18, Issue 4, Number 16. February 15, 2020
• Multiple-Book Review Essay, “The Olympic Games: Showcases of Internationalism and Modernity in Asia.” Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review. E-journal No. 24, September 2017.
• “Japan in the Olympics, The Olympics in Japan.” Education about Asia, Vol. 21, No. 2, Fall 2016, 35-40.
• “Sports, Motherhood, and the Female Body in Contemporary Japan.” The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 11, Issue 27, No. 1, July 7, 2014.
• Japanese Women and Sport: Beyond Baseball and Sumo. London: Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2012.