Print culture (illustrated books and single-sheet prints); Hokusai scholarship; artistic knowledge transmission; text-image relationships; digital art history, esp. events-based knowledge modelling of social and geographic phenomena; museum studies

Postdoc: 

"Layered Visions: Where Landscape Prints, Topography and Spatial Imagination Intersect—A Participatory Geospatial Investigation of Print-Terrain Divergences in Early-modern Japan" (Working Title)

• Implemenation Phase "Drawing from the Crowd: A Citizen Science Platform for Mapping Ukiyo-e Geography" supported by a GRC Career Grant  (7/2025-6/2026)

Teaching Innovation: 

"AI_d: AI didactic companion for East Asian Art History." Universitäre Lehrförderung (ULF) funding line micro_innovation 2025.

Courses in 2026

• Autumn 2026: Country-specific contexts and contents: Introduction to Art and Visual Culture of Japan (Exercise course, 9 ECTS)
• Autumn 2026: Introduction to East Asian Art History: Propaedeutics of East Asian Art History (6 ECTS, co-taught with Candice Bressmer-Kang)
• Autumn 2026: Displaying the Illustrated Book: Digital Curation Workshop, as part of the Residential Workshop of the "Ishibashi Foundation Graduate Programme in Japanese Art History and Multimodal Heritage Curation 2026/2027" (block course, October)
• Spring 2026: Methods in Digital (Art) Curation: The Sigg Collection (Exercise course, 6 ECTS) 
• Spring 2026: Aktuelle Themen zur Rezeption von ostasiatischer Kunst / Narrative Layers: Unveiling and Rewriting East Asian Art (BA Seminar, co-teaching with Isabelle Leemann, M.A.) 
• Spring 2026: Excursion: East Asian Art Collections in the UK (Exkursion, 06SM642o002, co-teaching with Prof. Dr. Ewa Machotka) 

Courses in 2025

• Autumn 2025: Introduction to East Asian Art History: Propaedeutics of East Asian Art History [Einführung in die ostasiatische Kunstgeschichte: Propädeutik der ostasiatischen Kunstgeschichte] (6 ECTS)
• Spring 2025: Critical Perspectives on the Production of Art in East Asia: Iridescent Luxuries: Perspectives on Commodities as Art in East Asia (BA Seminar, co-teaching with Alva Speth, M.A.) (6 ECTS)
• Spring 2025: Excursion: East Asian Art Collections in Geneva (co-teaching with Prof. Dr. Ewa Machotka) (6 ECTS)

Courses in 2024

• Autumn 2024: Introduction to East Asian Art History: Propaedeutics of East Asian Art History (6 ECTS)
• Autumn 2024: Internship: KU-UZH Joint Workshop in East Asian Art History 2024 (3 ECTS)
• Autumn 2024: Country-specific contexts and contents: Introduction to Japanese Art (co-teaching mit Prof. Dr. Ewa Machotka) (9 ECTS)
• Autumn 2024: Lektürekanon in westlichen und ostasiatischen Sprachen (self-study reading exam) (6 ECTS)

• Principal Investigator of the Nippon Social Innovators Collaboration (NSIC) 2024 project "Drawing from the Crowd:  Citizen Science Platform for Mapping Ukiyo-e Geography." (8/2024—1/2025), which researches the relationship between historical depictions of space and the realities that they refer to.
• Project management for Bilder der Schweiz Online (BSO, [Images of Switzerland online]), Swiss Art Research Infrastructure (SARI), University of Zurich: digital curation of data and research practices (2020—2022).  About the project / BSO research platform
• Technical research assistance for the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)-funded research project “Late Hokusai: Thought, Technique, Society”: conceptualisation and development of a semantic research platform. London: The British Museum and SOAS, University of London (10/2016—6/2019). About the project / Hokusai ResearchSpace

Visual Vocabularies Within Poetic Microcosms: How Katsushika Hokusai’s Social Embedding Shaped Content and Presentation of the “Ono” and “Ryakuga” Manuals (2023)https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-234082 (under embargo).

Scholarships obtained during this PhD project:

• UZH Travel Scholarship, Japan, Japan. 7/2023.
• Toshiba Foundation Fellowship, Stanford Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies (IUC), Japan. 6—8/2020.
• Nippon Foundation Fellowship, Stanford IInter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies (IUC), Japan. 9/2019—6/2020.

• [In peer-review]: “When Mountains Move: Decoding Spatial Practices in Ukiyo-e Through Participatory Geolocalization and Computer Vision.” Digital Studies / Le champ numérique. (submitted November 2025).  
• Peer-reviewed paper: [Forthcoming]: “Think tasks, not tools: why AI policy in higher education needs constructive alignment.” Teaching in Higher Education, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2026.2671391.
• Santschi, Stephanie. “Review of Salon Culture in Japan: Making Art, 1750– 1900 Edited by Akiko Yano. London: British Museum Press, 2024. 256 Pages, 220 Illustrations”. Silva Iaponicarum 74 (January):78-82 (2026). https://doi.org/10.14746/sijp.2025.74.5. 
• Santschi, Stephanie. "Travel and Famous Places: Movement and Imagination in Ukiyo-e Landscapes | Voyage et lieux célèbres: mouvement et imaginaire dans l'ukiyo-e au fil des paysages." In Impressions du Japon / Impressions of Japan, edited by Anne Deltour and Margaux Honegger, 174–81. Zurich: Scheidegger & Spiess; Vevey: Musée Jenisch, 2025.
• Santschi, Stephanie, und Drew Richardson. "From Print to Place: Creating an Integrative Geolocalization Workflow Using Citizen Scientists and Computer Vision AI." Conference Proceedings for The Digital Orientalist, December 12, 2025. https://digitalorientalist.com/2025/12/12/from-print-to-place-creating-an-integrative-geolocalization-workflow-using-citizen-scientists-and-computer-vision-ai/
• Santschi, Stephanie. "Think Tasks Not Tools: Teaching AI Literacy in East Asian Art History," Guest contribution to The Digital Orientalist, September 9, 2025. https://digitalorientalist.com/2025/09/09/think-tasks-not-tools-teaching-ai-literacy-in-east-asian-art-history/
• Santschi, Stephanie. “Review of the 125th International ARC Seminar (Dr Ellis Tinios)―Hokusai the Alchemist: an exploration of sources for his book illustration”. Art Research 25: Art Research Center Ritsumeikan, ISSN 2436-5408.
• Santschi, Stephanie. “Hokusai beyond the database: transforming digital archives into a complex collaborative research environment”. Late Hokusai: Society, Thought, Technique, Legacy, edited by Timothy Clark. London: The British Museum (2023): 245-252. https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-237020
• Santschi, Stephanie. “Report on the talk ‘Drawings by Hokusai and His Students at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’”. SISJAC e-Bulletin, July 2023. https://www.sainsbury-institute.org/e-bulletin/july-2023/report-on-the-talk-drawings-by-hokusai-and-his-students-at-the-museum-of-fine-arts-boston/
• Santschi, Stephanie. “Mapping Late Hokusai Research: Digitizing and Publishing Bilingual Research Data”, Digital Studies / le champ numérique (DSCN) 12:1 (2022). https://doi.org/10.16995/dscn.8079
• Santschi, Stephanie, Dominic Oldman and Diana Tanase. “ResearchSpace Case Study on Sequencing Hokusai Print Impressions to Form a Human Curated Network of Knowledge”. International Journal for Digital Art History 4 (2019): 5.29-5.45 https://doi.org/10.11588/dah.2019.4.72071
• Santschi, Stephanie. “Digitally Supported Visualisations of Japanese Archaeology at the British Museum”. EU ワークショップ報告論文集 | 関西大学大学院文学研究科副専攻「EU-日本学」2016年度活動報告書 [EU Workshop Report Papers | Kansai University Graduate School of Letters, EU - Japan Studies, Activity Report for 2016] (2017): 231—250.
• Santschi, Stephanie, Rebeca Gomez Morilla, Brigitte Huber. “La collection d’estampes japonaises du Cabinet d’arts graphiques des Musées d’art et d’histoire de Genève | The Japanese Woodcuts in the Collection of Prints and Drawings of the Musées d’art et d’histoire in Geneva”. Le geste suspendu. Estampes Kabuki du Cabinet d'arts graphiques, edited by Christian Rümelin. Cologne: Wienand (2014): 122-132.
• Santschi, Stephanie. “Entdeckerlust, faszinierende Holzschnitte und Japan sammeln [Essay on the history of the Völkerkundesammlung Burgdorf]”. Burgdorfer Jahrbuch 2015. Burgdorf: Verein Burgdorfer Jahrbuch (2014): 105-112. https://biblio.unibe.ch/digibern/burgdorfer_jahrbuch/burgdorfer_jahrbuch_2015.

• 14/03/2026. “Drawing from the Crowd” [poster presentation]. Association for Asian Studies (AAS) 2026 Annual Conference, Vancouver (CA), 12-15 March 2026.
• 13/03/2026. “Building Global Networks to Address the Challenges Facing Japan Studies.” [The Nippon Foundation Roundtable, invited speaker]. Association for Asian Studies (AAS) 2026 Annual Conference, Vancouver (CA), 12-15 March 2026.
• 23/01/2026. "AI_d: A Pedagogical Framework for AI Use in Higher Education." Seminar: AI, Japanology, and Education「AI・日本学・教育」, National Museum of Japanese History (国立歴史民俗博物館 Rekihaku), Sakura (JP) (in place, hybrid broadcast). 
• 22/01/2026.「市民科学で読み解く浮世絵の空間表現——Drawing from the Crowdプロジェクトの紹介」/ "Reading Spatial Representation in Ukiyo-e through Citizen Science: Introducing the Drawing from the Crowd Project." Keio Museum Commons, Keio University, Tokyo (JP). 
• 19/01/2026. Keynote Lecture: "Making Computational Boundaries Visible: AI as Critical Tool in Japanese Visual Studies and Pedagogy." Digital Approach to Literary Analysis 2025 (DALA2025), Chuo University (co-hosted by NII), Tokyo, by invitation.
• 13/01/2026. "Drawing from the Crowd Project Update." The Nippon Foundation Scholars Association Webinar, The Nippon Foundation, Tokyo (virtual). 
• 27/11/2025, "Making Boundaries Visible: AI as Critical Tool in Japanese Visual Studies", Machine Visual Culture: Recombination and Canon in Art History Panel, INNOVATION Symposium 'From Mimesis to Machine: AI and the Evolution of Artistic Creation', Istituto Svizzero, Rome (IT)
• 20/11/2025. "Zwischen Parodie und Poetik: Die Text-Bild-Synthese in Katsushika Hokusais frühesten Malereihandbüchern (1810–1814) als neue Formensprache für die Kunst der Illustration ab 1850," Interdisziplinäres Symposium: Die Kunst der Illustration, Schweizerisches Institut für Kunstwissenschaft (SIK-ISEA), Zurich. 
• 20/09/2025. "Moving Mountains: Analyzing Spatial Narratives in Ukiyo-e through Citizen Science," International Symposium of the Nihon kinsei bungaku kai 日本近世文学会 Early Modern Graphic Narratives (kusazōshi): Making the Most of Digital Data (18-20 September 2025), University of Cambridge (UK). 
• 28/08/2025. Workshop: „Developing Learning-Outcome-Oriented AI Usage Guidelines“, AI in Teaching Forum, University of Zurich. 
• 22/08/2025. Paneldiskussion der Sektion Informations- und Ressourcenwissenschaften: „Japan-Wissen offen(er) und nachhaltig(er) publizieren und archivieren?“, 19. Deutschsprachiger Japanologentag, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt-am-Main (DE). 
• 21/08/2025. „Drawing from the Crowd“: Eine Citizen-Science-Plattform zur geographischen Verortung von Ukiyo-e", 19. Deutschsprachiger Japanologentag, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt-am-Main (DE). 
• 16/07/2025: "Reconstructing Japan’s Scenic Past from Prints: Combining Citizen Science and AI-Methods for Authenticating Direct Observation in Ukiyo-e Landscapes," ADHO Digital Humanities Conference 2025 (DH2025), with Himanshu Panday (Dignity in Difference), Lisbon (P). 
• 31/05/2025. "From Print to Place: Creating an Integrative Geolocalization Workflow using Citizen Scientists and Computer Vision AI," “AI and the Digital Humanities” The Digital Orientalist Virtual Conference 2025, with Drew Richardson (University of California, Santa Cruz), online. 
• 21/02/2025. Project report: "Drawing from the Crowd: A Citizen Science Platform for Mapping Ukiyo-e Geography / 集合知を描く: 市民科学浮世絵マッピングプラットフォーム," Ritsumeikan ARC: FY2024 Annual Report Meeting 立命館ARC「2024年度成果報告会」, Ritsumeikan University Art Research Center, Kyoto (JP) [zoom].  
• 21/01/2025. 「Drawing from the Crowd: A Citizen Science Platform for Mapping Ukiyo-e Geography／集合知を描く: 市民科学浮世絵マッピングプラットフォーム」, 9th Digital Humanities Research Meeting “Ukiyo-e, Citizen Science, and DH 第9回 DH研究会「浮世絵、市民科学、DH」Hibiya Library and Museum Seminar Room 日比谷図書文化館 セミナールーム Tokyo (JP).
• 20/01/2025.  “Citizen Science Webinar on Localizing Japanese Ukiyo-e Landscapes,” The Nippon Foundation Scholars Association, The Nippon Foundation, Tokyo (JP). 
• 12/07/2024. "Viewed at a distance: geography in ukiyo-e prints", Charting the European D-SEA: Digital Scholarship in East Asian Studies Conference, Max Planck / Staatsbibliothek Berlin. 
• 08/05/2024. "Hokusais Eurasien: Vor- und Darstellungen von China, Indien und darüber hinaus", Zehnte Nachwuchstagung der Schweizerischen Asiengesellschaft und der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft Mittlerer Osten und Islamische Kulturen, Basel. 
• 25/11/2023. “Hokusai as an author-illustrator? Application of the Visual Language Established among Hokusai's Poetic Social Context as a Didactic Tool / 戯作者兼絵師としての北斎？――北斎が詩的社会的文脈で確立した視覚言語の教訓への応用”,28th International Ukiyo-e Society Autumn Conference, Yokohama (JP).
• 2/7/2023. “Visual Vocabularies Within Poetic Microcosms”, Asian Studies Conference Japan, Sofia University, Tokyo (JP)
• 23/6/2022. “Zwischen Projekt- und globalem Thesaurus: Konzepterschliessung und -verknüpfung im Rahmen der Initiative ‘Bilder der Schweiz Online’ bei Swiss Art Research Infrastructure SARI”, 5. Schweizerischer Kongress für Kunstgeschichte, with Sarah Amsler, UZH.
• 29/1/2021. “Strategien zur Projektentwicklung in den Digital Humanities” and“Visuelle Daten im semantischen Raum (BSO)”,Open Space des Arbeitskreises Digitale Kunstgeschichte (virtuell).
• 8/12/2020. Project Overview: Bilder der Schweiz Online, SARI/BSOxTime Machine Open Day (virtuell).
• 8/7/2019. “Expectations and reality: developing an English/Japanese semantic web environment for the Late Hokusai research project”,ADHO workshop: Towards Multilingualism in Digital Humanities: Achievements, Failures and Good Practices in DH Projects with Non-Latin Scripts. Digital Humanities 2019, Utrecht (NL).
• 7/6/2019. “Collaborating in Late Hokusai ResearchSpace: big data and individual contributions”, Panel Quid pro quo: linked data in art history research. Fourth Swiss Congress of Art History, Università della Svizzera Italiana, Mendrisio.
• 27/2/2019. “Progress report on the knowledge base of the Late Hokusai research project「北斎後期研究プロジェクトの知識ベースに関する進捗報告」”,Digital Archive Industry-Academia-Government Forum. National Diet Library: Hibiya Convention Hall, Tokyo (JP), 27/2/2019.
• 11/9/2018. “Challenges of building a multilingual web resource on Hokusai「北斎に関する多言語データリソースの構築にあたっての課題」”, (G)localizing Japanese Studies Resources (グ)ローカル化する日本資料.The 29th EAJRS Conference, Centre for Asian Studies, Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas (LT).
• 20/8/2018. “Building the arguments around the production of Katsushika Hokusai’s single sheet impressions”,Workshop: Data Science for Digital Art History: tackling big data: challenges, algorithms, and systems.Knowledge Data Discovery KDD SIGG London (UK).
• 18 und 20/4/2018. “The Late Hokusai knowledge graph on ResearchSpace”, Late Hokusai research workshops. Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington D.C. (USA); and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (USA).
• 25/8/2017. “Visualising Prehistory”, Second Conference of the European Association for Asian Art and Archaeology (EAAAA), UZH.
• 28/7/2017. “Late Hokusai: Using Knowledge Representation for Community Collaboration”, Symposium: Building Cultural Heritage Knowledge. The British Museum, London (UK).
• 20 and 25/11/2016. “ResearchSpace and the Semantic Web”, Late Hokusai Research Forum. Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto (JP); and Gakushuin University, Tokyo (JP).
• 5/11/2016. “Digitally Supported Visualisations of Japanese Archaeology at the British Museum”, EU-Japan Research Workshop, UZH.
• 29/3/2016. “Challenges of Digitizing William Gowland at the British Museum”, Symposium: Japanese Cultural Assets and Digitalization. Centre Européen d'Etudes Japonaises d'Alsace (CEEJA), Colmar (F).
• 20/9/2014. “William Kuprecht - Understanding the Foreign(er): A Swiss textile printing expert in Kyoto 1902-1909”,Kansai University EU-Japan Workshop, Osaka (JP),07 and 8/3/2013. “Capturing the Moment Over Three Hundred Years: The Rieder Collection of Japanese Woodblock Prints” and “The Burgdorf Völkerkunde Museum and the KGOA Project” (collaborative), Symposium ‘Moving Art between East Asia and the West’, UZH.

Member (2017-): European Association of Japanese Resource Specialists (EAJRS)
Member (2019-): Swiss-Kansai Student Exchange Program Alumni Society in Switzerland
Member (2020-): Digital Society Initiative (DSI), Digital Humanities Community 
Member (2021-): The Nippon Foundation Scholars Association (TNFSA) (Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation and Nippon Foundation Alumni Groups)
Member (2023-): Kokusai Ukiyo-e Gakkai 国際浮世絵学会 [International Ukiyo-e Society]
President (2024-) und Member (2010-) des Kizuna-Netzwerks von Japan-Austausch-Alumni in der Schweiz
Member (2025-): European Association for Asian Art and Archaeology (EAAA)
Member (2025-): Nihon kinsei bungaku kai (日本近世文学会) [Japanese Early Modern Literature Association]
Member (2025-): Association for Asian Studies (AAS)