Dr. Akira Shimizu, an associate professor of History and a specialist in the history of Japan and East Asia at Wilkes University, Pennsylvania, received the Diversity Faculty Award in recognition of the faculty member who has contributed to improving the diversity climate. Dr. Shimizu received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and taught at Washington University in St. Louis, Yale University, and Wesleyan University before joining Wilkes University faculty in 2015. His latest book titled Specialty Food, Market Culture, and Daily Life in Early Modern Japan: Regulating and Deregulating the Market in Edo, 1780–1870 (2022, Lexington Books) examines the historical significance of food markets and branding in the early modern Japanese capital of Edo. For more information about Dr. Shimizu’s book, please see here.