William Grimes

William W. Grimes has taught in the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University since 1996. Previously, he spent time as a post-doctoral researcher and as a visiting assistant professor at Harvard University. At BU, he has served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the Pardee School (2014-22), Chair of the former Department of International Relations (2010-13), and Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Asia (2008-10).

Grimes is the author of Unmaking the Japanese Miracle: Macroeconomic Politics, 1985-2000 (Cornell University Press, 2001) and Currency and Contest in East Asia: The Great Power Politics of Financial Regionalism (Cornell University Press, 2008), as well as co-editor (with Ulrike Schaede) ofJapan’s Managed Globalization: Adapting to the 21st Century (M.E. Sharpe, 2002). Currency and Contest in East Asia was awarded the 2010 Masayoshi Ohira Prize for outstanding book on the Pacific Basin and received an Honorable Mention in the competition for the Asia Society’s Bernard Schwartz Book Award in 2009. He has published articles, book chapters, monographs, and commentary on East Asian financial regionalism, the impacts of financial globalization in Japan, Japanese monetary policy making, digital financial inclusion, US-Japan relations, and related topics. His current research follows two main tracks: financial regionalism and regulation of financial innovation in East Asia.  

Grimes has spent time as a visiting researcher at the Japanese Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Japan, and universities in Japan and Australia. He has been the recipient of various fellowships and awards over the years, including two Fulbright fellowships and a book-writing grant from the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership. He is an active lecturer in Japan and the United States in both academic and policy venues and has been recognized for his teaching and advising at Boston University.

Grimes is committed to policy-relevant research and works regularly with government officials and financial professionals, particularly from the United States and Japan. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.