Global Codex: Hidden Stories of Books Across Cultures

This new addition to our popular online course series on books and book culture uncovers the hidden stories of books as they travelled across cultures and traditions. The course launches in October 2026.

Lead Educators：Satoko Tokunaga, Takahiro Sasaki

Global Codex: Hidden Stories of Books Across Cultures

The course invites learners to reconsider books not merely as texts, but as material objects shaped by human hands, tools, and cultures. Drawing on rare manuscripts and early printed books from Japan, Dunhuang, Europe, and beyond, the course explores how books have evolved, travelled, and taken new forms across cultures and over time. Join our distinguished instructors in uncovering the hidden stories of codices that transcend boundaries of time and cultures.

Global Codex: Hidden Stories of Books Across Cultures course was jointly developed by Keio University, the British Library, and the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with the Dunhuang Academy. It brings together scholars and specialists from institutions around the world — meet our educators.

Keio University

(Educators from left to right)

Takahiro Sasaki, Professor, Keio Institute of Oriental Classics
Satoko Tokunaga, Professor, Faculty of Letters, Department of English and American Literature
Mari Agata, Professor, Faculty of Letters, Department of Library and Information Science
Mayumi Ikeda, Associate Professor, Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Foreign Languages and
Liberal Arts

The British Library

(Specialists from left to right)

Mélodie Doumy, Lead Curator, Chinese Collections (Stein and Hoernle) and manager of International Dunhuang Programme (IDP)
Karen Limper-Herz, Head of Printed Heritage Collections

University of Cambridge

(Specialists from left to right)

Alessandro Bianchi, Head of World Collections, Cambridge University Library
Irène Fabry-Tehranchi, French Specialist, Collections and Academic Liaison, Cambridge University Library
Laura Moretti, Professor of Early Modern Japanese Literature and Culture, Department of East Asian Studies, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Orietta Da Rold, Professor in Medieval Literature and Manuscript Studies, Academic Director of the Cambridge University Library Research Institute
Yasmin Faghihi, Head of Near and Middle Eastern Department, Cambridge University Library

Invited speakers

Left: Eric White, Curator of Rare Books, Princeton University Library
Right: Azusa Tanaka, Japanese Studies Librarian, University of Washington Library