School of Social and Political Science

Research interests

I am a proficient and innovative Social Anthropologist and Lecturer dedicated to maintaining the highest academic standards. My research resides at the intersection of Indigenous studies, critical museology, and intellectual history, with a regional focus on modern Japan.

I have held academic teaching positions at the University of the Arts and Limkokwing University of Creative Technology in London, UK, as well as at Taisho University in Tokyo, Japan, and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

My study primarily investigates the politics of recognition and identity among the Ainu communities of Hokkaido, groups compelled to assimilate into Japan under colonial domination. It additionally examines the contributions of Dr Neil Gordon Munro (1863-1942), an Edinburgh-trained physician who spent extensive years in Japan. During his residence, Munro emerged as a dedicated scholar of Ainu culture and amassed numerous Ainu artefacts, many of which are now preserved at the National Museum of Scotland. The Japanese authorities viewed Munro as an intrusive outsider whose activities hindered their anthropological goals, perceiving his use of British social anthropology’s ‘genealogical’ method to assist the Ainu as conflicting with their vision of Hokkaido as a frontier land akin to America. 

Be that as it may, these artefacts now attest to the disruptive social construction of past lives and support the (re)articulation of how Ainu identities are experienced, understood, represented and remembered. My thesis seeks to deepen understanding of the intricate relationship among intellectual exchange, historical trajectories, and ethnographic practices by analysing museums, provenance, and archival collections in the context of the development of anthropology and archaeology. Discussions about the decolonisation of museum collections, particularly in the contexts of British Imperialism and Japanese settler colonialism, underscore the overarching aim of this research: to foster more scholarly discourse that advances meaningful restorative justice for Ainu ancestors and promotes Japan's recognition of its (trans)national identity.

My project has been featured by the BBC (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c75dgqp5kw7o), Restitution Matters, and the Edinburgh Tab. My doctoral research has been awarded the distinguished John Crump Fellowship by the British Association of Japanese Studies. The project has also received support from The Lady Marks Charitable Trust, the Japan Foundation, the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, and the University of Edinburgh.