Prof. Nissim Otmazgin is a Full Professor at the Department of Asian Studies and currently the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Before that, he was the Chair of the Institute for Asian and African Studies, the Director of the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, and the Chair of the Department of Asian Studies. He was also a member of the Israeli Young Academy of Science and Humanities. 

Otmazgin's research interests include Japanese and Korean media industries, popular culture and regionalization in East Asia, Japan-Southeast Asian Relations, and cultural diplomacy in East Asia. His PhD dissertation (Kyoto University, 2007), which examines the export of Japan’s popular culture to Asia, won the Iue Asia Pacific Research Prize in October 2007 for outstanding dissertation on society and culture in Asia. As a part of this research, he conducted extensive fieldwork in Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, Bangkok, Taipei, and Seoul.

The author and co-editor of 8 books on contemporary culture and society in Asia, he has published articles in a number of international academic journals including International Relations of the Asia Pacific, Media, Culture & Society, Global Policy, Inter-Asia Cultural studies, Pacific Affairs, Contemporary Southeast Asia, Asia-Pacific Review, Kritika Kultura, Asian Perspective, Cross-Currents, Situations, International Journal of Taiwan Studies, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, Japan Focus, and Contemporary Japan.