Contact Information
Department of Political Science
Mailcode #9420
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9420

Phone: (805) 893-3432
Advising: (805) 893-4192
Fax: (805) 893-3309

Laurie A. Freeman, Associate Professor
Comparative Politics, Political Communication, Japanese Politics, Media and Politics
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1996

Professor Freeman joined the department in 1996 after spending a year at Harvard University's Program on U.S.-Japan Relations.
Her current research interests concern comparative politics with an emphasis on the press and politics of Japan, and the role of the media in comparative perspective. Professor Freeman was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study the Internet and development of civil society in Japan in 2000-01, and is currently writing a book on information technology and democracy in comparative perspective.

During the Fall quarter of 2009, Professor Freeman will be a Visiting Professor in the ICU-UC Joint Program in Contemporary Japanese Culture.  For the remainder of the academic year 2009-2010, Professor Freeman will be a Visiting Professor in International and Area Studies at UC Berkeley.

Courses Taught:

PS 105Theories of Comparative Politics
PS 135Government and the Politics of Japan
PS 171Politics and Communication
PS 286Seminar in Japanese Politics

Selected Recent Publications:
Closing the Shop: Information Cartels and Japan's Mass Media, Princeton University Press, 2000.

"Media," in U.S.-Japan Relations in a Changing World, Stephen Vogel, ed. (Brookings Institution Press, 2002).

"Mobilizing and Demobilizing the Japanese Public Sphere: Mass Media and the Internet in the Development of Civil Society in Japan," in The State of Civil Society in Japan, Frank J. Schwartz and Susan J. Pharr, eds. (Cambridge University Press, 2003).


© 2009 The Regents of the University of California, All Rights Reserved
UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara CA 93106 (805) 893-8000
Contact polsweb@polsci.ucsb.edu