Miki Sugiura (Nishiyama) specializes in early modern distribution and consumption history, centering on cloth and clothing.She is professor of Global and European Economic History of Hosei University in Tokyo, Japan, and currently visiting University of Warwick as visiting professor.

She obtained PhD with the theme "Early Modern Dutch Distribution structure", and published since various articles on urban history, focusing on the logistics and the impacts it had on multiple aspects of people's lives. During 2000-2015, she has published articles on divisions of functions of commercial occupations, women‘s property formation as well as urban land ownership, comparing multiple locations of Amsterdam, Edo and Cape town.

Currently she is working on the theme of cloth and clothing circulation of different areas. Her goal is to establish Global history of the ciruclations of cloth/clothing with longer scope for the lives of things and their material value formations. Since 2014 she is running a research platform "Linking Cloth-Clothing Globally"(https://lccg.tokyo), and organized multiple interdiciplinary conferences and workshop funded by JSPS research grant.

She has recently published articles on circulations of slave clothing as well as mass consumption of re-fashioned kimono in the 20th century, and writing book on secondhand clothing circulation in history. She is also preparing for publishing an article on the competition between Japan, Netherlands and U.K. in selling cloth/clotihng to Africa in the early 20th century. Her main interest lies on how "cheaper" cloth and clothing were created and circulated globally.
She is the recipient of Leverhulme Visiting Professorship (2018-2019) and JSPS Fund for Promoting International Collaborative Research (2017-2019). During her visit at Warwick, she is planning to organize multiple workshops and lectures.

Major events she organizes for Autumn term 2018 -2019 are:

4th September, 2018, Roundtable History & Design 1: Printed Textiles for West Africa. c1860-1980s. Low Countries, U.K., Switzerland, Japan and their Global Connections. (University of Leuven)

12th September, 2018 Roundtable History & Design 2: Kosode & Banyans: Contested World Views in an Attire c1580-1910. https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/ghcc/event/events/roundtablehistorydesign

8th October, 2018, Guest Lecture "Economies of Global Clothes. Slave Clothing in the 18th century Dutch Cape Colony" (Paris-Diderot University)

18th October, 2018, Guest Lecture "Selling from Home. Gendred Spheres and Urban Space Formation in the 18th century Dutch Cape Settlement" (University of Zurich, Colloquim at Global History Seminar)

19th October 2018, Guest Lecture "The Mass Consumption of Refashioned Clothes: Redyed Kimono in Post-War Japan" (University of Zurich, Section of East Asian Art)

16 November 2018, "Value", Fifty Years of Textile History. Cloth, Dress and Fashion, 2018 Pasold Conference Museum of London.

23rd November, 2018 International Symposium: Uniformed Reds and Ordinary Blues.Colours and Clothes in Circulations, c1750-1900. (with Dr Adrianna Catena) Miki Sugiura's presentation: ' Proper Red and Blue for Fighting the West. Military Uniforms in 1850s Japan'

9th January, 2019, SOAS Japan Research Center Seminar: "The Mass Consumption of Refashioned Clothes: Redyed Kimono in Post-War Japan", Russell Square: College Buildings, Khalili Lecture Theatre,https://www.soas.ac.uk/jrc/events/seminar-and-events/09jan2019-mass-consumption-of-refashioned-clothes-re-dyed-kimono-in-post-war-japan.html

24th January,2019, Round Table History& Design 3: The 18th century Banyans & Casta Paintings (Presentations by Prof Rebecca Earle, Dr Adrianna Catena), Room 0.02 Ocalus, University of Warwick, 1-3 pm, https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/ghcc/event/events/banyansandcastapaintings

4th February, 2019, Circle of Japanese Art in London: "The King, the Pope, and the Silk Kimono: Global Dialogues in Tensho Boys Embassy’s Attire in 1580s", Daiwa House, Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, 2-4pm

22nd February, 2019: International Symposium Globalization of Sportswear. Brand Marketing, Technology and Cultural Agenda c.1880-2010s (with Prof. Giorgio Riello)

15th-16th March, International Symposium: Textiles and Materiality. Mixing Fibres between East and West, 16th-20th centuries (with Prof Giorgio Riello and Prof John Styles) Miki Sugiura's presentation 'A Quest for Diversity: Ramie-Hemp Mixed Weave in the late 18th century - early 19th century Japan'