https://www.ccsu.edu/person/matthew-chudnow
Matthew Chudnow is Assistant Professor of Japanese and the Japanese Program Coordinator in the department of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Central Connecticut State University, where he teaches courses on Japanese language, cultural history, and socio-religious topics. He received his PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures from the University of California, Irvine, in 2017.
His main interdisciplinary research project argues that Noh theater acts as a popularizing vector for Buddhist enlightenment discourse combined with medieval shamanic beliefs. This project’s primary research objective is to delineate allegoresis, gender roles, and socio-historical context within Noh plays and their source texts with special focus to the criticality of sacred space.
He has participated in the 2024 and 2026 meetings of the New Directions in Noh Workshop. These workshops are an invaluable forum for him to share his research and receive feedback on how doctrine, ritual, and sacred geography are central to Noh as literary and theatrical form, while also learning new methodologies and academic perspectives from his senior colleagues. His paper for the first meeting in 2024, "Mechanisms for Female Enlightenment within Konparu Zenchiku's Nonomiya," examined how this play frames the possibility of salvation for its female protagonist and is being revised further for potential publication. For the third meeting in 2026, he presented his latest research project, working title "Folding Time and Sacred Spaces via Narrative within the Noh Play Kasuga Ryūjin," which analyzes how temporal and geographic distance are collapsed in this Noh play, folding multiple Japanese and foreign sacred sites and times into the divine geography of the Kasuga-Kōfukuji complex. This feedback helped him revise the piece for a forthcoming article in the Proceedings of the Association for Japanese Literary Studies, Vol. 26 (Fall 2027), which will be revised further.
Dr. Chudnow also extends the workshop's reach into interdisciplinary medieval studies and undergraduate education in his role as Japanese Program Coordinator in the department of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Central Connecticut State University. He has taught the popular course HUM/IS 230-03: “Development of Japanese Martial Arts” since 2022, which focuses on delineating the socio-historical background and combinatory worldviews of as central to the comprehensive systems of warfare in premodern Japanese, while also discussing how these systems transitioned during modernization and systemization of the military during Meiji and later Showa eras, creating today’s martial arts as deeply rooted expressions of Japanese socio-cultural identity. He has forged a close relationship with the Consulate General of Japan in Boston, and through this connection was awarded the Kakehashi Project administered by the Japan International Cooperation Center (JICE) in 2024, where he took seven of his Japanese minors on a fully funded study trip of Tokyo and Ehime prefecture. During their time in Ehime, students participated in seated meditation at Sairyūji, a small Sōtō Zen temple in Matsuyama City. Students also were guided by Dr. Chudnow through other premodern historical sites in Ehime during this trip.
Dr. Chudnow is highly active in promoting medieval studies across academic institutions in Connecticut and is one of the co-founders and coordinators for the new conference series The Medieval World: Interdisciplinary Studies. Held at Central Connecticut State University in April 2026, this was an opportunity for faculty and undergraduates working across topics in the medieval world to present their research in a supportive academic setting. By presenting his Noh research to scholars and students outside Japanese Studies, Dr. Chudnow places the genre within comparative conversations about premodern religion, culture, and history across academic fields and disciplines. He also assisted in coordinating and promoting the Japan Foundation Traveling special traveling exhibit titled Yokai Parade: Supernatural Monsters from Japan in coordination with the Elihu Burritt Library at Central Connecticut State University, the Consulate General of Japan in Boston, and the Japan Foundation New York. This exhibit of high quality reproductions of artworks featuring traditional and contemporary Japanese ghosts and monsters was held on the Second Floor of the Elihu Burritt Library from June 23 to July 16, 2026, with a special opening reception on Tuesday, June 23 that featured a keynote address by the Consulate General of Japan in Boston Consul General Seiichirō Takahashi. Dr. Chudnow also gave an academic talk titled “Depictions of Yōkai in Japanese Art” for this event. He was also invited to give the presentation “The Socio-Historical Development of the Kabuki Theater in Early Modern Japan” in September 2026 as part of a special screening of the film “Kokuhō” at the Hoffman Auditorium, Bruyette Athenaeum at Saint Joseph University as part of Japan Week 2026 coordinated by the US and Japan Society of Connecticut.