CURRICULUM VITAE
Taka OSHIKIRI
GENERAL AREA OF ACADEMIC SPECIALISATION
Meiji Japan (1868-1912), modern history of Japan, social and cultural history of Japanese tea, modernity and modernisation, international expositions.
APPOINTMENTS
Research Fellow November 2023–Present
The European Research Council (ERC) project NONWESTLIT (Grant agreement No. 950513), Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures (LILEC), University of Bologna, Italy.
Visiting Professor September 2022–June 2023
The ERC Project NONWESTLIT, LILEC, University of Bologna, Italy.
Lecturer in Asian History 2013–2023 (LOA)
Department of History and Archaeology, The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, Jamaica.
Special Visiting Scholar July–September 2017
TUFS Program for Japan Studies in Global Context, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan.
Visiting Research Associate 2016–2022
Japan Research Centre, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, United Kingdom.
EDUCATION
PhD in History April 2012
Department of History, SOAS, University of London, UK.
Thesis Title: Gathering for Tea in Meiji Japan
MA in Historical Research Methods 2007
Department of History, SOAS, University of London, UK.
Dissertation Title: Chanoyu as Japanese Art: Canonising Tradition in Modern Japan (with Distinction).
Foundation Diploma for Postgraduate Studies 2006
International Foundation Courses and English Language Studies, SOAS, University of London, UK.
LANGUAGE SKILLS
Japanese (native fluency, speaking and writing)
English (near native fluency, speaking and writing)
LANGUAGE TRAINING
Kuzushiji Workshop 17–23 July 2016
Frankfurt-Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany
Graduate Summer School for Early-Modern Written Japanese 2–15 August 2015
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Kuzushiji Workshop 28–30 January 2013
Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris, Paris, France
European Kanbun Workshop 7–25 July 2008
Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan/Historiographical Institute, the University of Tokyo, Stockholm, Sweden
DISTINCTIONS, HONOURS, SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS
Fellow of Royal Historical Society, Royal Historical Society, United Kingdom. August 2023–Present
John Crump Studentship, British Association for Japanese Studies. 2010
Meiji Jingu PhD Studentship, SOAS, University of London, Japan Research Centre. 2008
Arts and Humanities Research Council Training Grant for Language Training. 2008
PAPERS PRESENTED AT ACADEMIC CONFERENCES AND SEMINARS
‘Translating Fūryū in Meiji Japan: Nation-Building, Imperialist Ambitions and Cultural Modernisation’, presented at the Workshop ‘New Directions in Modern Japanese Culture: Comparativism, Translation, and Nation-Building in the Age of Empire’, Universite libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, 4–6 September 2023.
‘Making the Role Model in Industrialising Japan’, presented at the 17th annual conference of the Nordic Association for the Study of Contemporary Japanese Society (NAJS), Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden, 15–16 June 2023.
‘Chanoyu Geisha: Class, Culture and Gender in Modernising Japan’, presented at the Seminars in Comparative Literature (NONWESTLIT), University of Bologna, Italy, 22 November 2022.
‘Chanoyu Geisha: Class, Culture and Gender in Modernising Japan’, presented at the 28th Gender Workshop for Research on Japan, University of Zurich, Switzerland, 17-18 November 2022.
‘Being Fūryū in Meiji Japan: Modernisation’s Effect on Culture and Gender’, presented at the 16th annual conference of the Nordic Association for the Study of Contemporary Japanese Society (NAJS), University of Oslo, Norway, 12-13 May 2022.
‘Learning Tea in Meiji Japan’, presented at the 16th EAJS Conference, Ghent University, Belgium/online, 26 August 2021.
‘Being Fūryū in Modernising Japan’, presented at the Research Writing Workshop, The University of Tokyo, Japan/online. 9 August 2021.
‘Chanoyu and being “fūryū” in Modernising Japan’, presented at the Translation Workshop on Japanese Historical Materials: Texts from the Meiji Period, The University of Tokyo, Japan/online. 9 January 2021. [In Japanese]
‘Being Fūryū in Modernising Japan: Tea and Aesthetic Sensibility in the Late Meiji Period, ca. 1880-1900.’, presented at the Cross-campus Seminar, UWI, Jamaica/online, 20 November 2020.
‘Japan in British Jamaica’, presented at the International Workshop for the Translating Culture Project, Waseda University, Japan, 15 January 2020. [In Japanese]
‘Seki Nyorai and the ‘Good Daughter’ of the Meiji Period’, presented to the 11th International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS 11), Leiden University, the Netherlands, 18 July 2019.
‘Selling Tea as Japanese History: Culture, Consumption and International Expositions, 1873-1910’, presented to the Research Seminar at the Institute of Caribbean Studies, UWI, Mona, 1 November 2019.
‘Noble Daughters of the Meiji Period’, presented to the British Association for Japanese Studies Annual Conference 2018, University of Sheffield, UK, 7 September 2019.
‘Displaying Japanese Tea Culture at the International Expositions, 1873–1893’, presented to the workshop, ‘World Fairs and International Exhibitions: National Self-profiling in an Internationalist Context, 1851-1940’, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 8 March 2019.
‘Consuming Tea in Chicago and London: International Expositions and the Making of the “Japanese Tradition”, 1893-1910’, presented at the Staff and Graduate Students Seminar at the Department of History and Archaeology, UWI, Mona, 7 October 2016.
‘Consuming Tea in Chicago and London’, presented to the Joint East Asian Studies Conference, SOAS, UK, 9 September 2016.
‘Consuming Tea at the World’s Columbian Exposition (1893) and the Anglo-Japanese Exhibition (1910)’, presented to the Nordic Association for Japanese and Korean Studies, Stockholm University, Sweden, 19 August 2016.
‘The Plum Tree Branch and the Mayfly: The Representation of Tea Ceremony in Japanese Popular Art Prints’, given to the Staff and Graduate Students Seminar at the Department of Modern Languages, UWI, Mona, Jamaica, 28 April 2016.
‘Gathering for Tea in Meiji Tokyo’, presented to the 13th Annual International Conference on History & Archaeology: From Ancient to Modern, Athens Institute for Education and Research, Greece, 30 June 2015.
‘The Shogun’s Tea Jar’, given to the Graduate Seminar in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work, UWI, Mona. 30 October.
‘Tea and Buddhist Monasteries in Japanese History’, presented to the International Association for the Buddhist Studies Conference, University of Vienna, 19 August 2014.
‘Chanoyu and the Early Meiji Cultural Policy’, presented to the Archaeological Society of Jamaica, the 12thSymposium ‘Caribbean Archaeology, Conservation and Material Culture’, UWI, Mona, 10 April 2014.
‘Social Lives of Chanoyu’, presented to the Departmental Research Seminar at the Department of History and Archaeology, UWI, Mona, 21 February 2014.
‘Material Culture, Ritual and Political Authority in Pre-modern Japan’, presented to the Social History Society Annual Conference, University of Leeds, 27 March 2013.
‘The Shogun’s Tea Jar’, presented to the International Joint Workshop, Where Art Meets Rituals: Aesthetic and Religious Practices in Japan, SOAS, 5 October 2012.
‘Gathering for Tea in Late-Meiji Tokyo’, presented to the British Association for Japanese Studies Conference, Norwich, U.K., 6-7 September 2012.
‘Gathering for Tea in Meiji Japan: Tea Connoisseur’s Social Life, ca.1880’, presented to Approaching Art and Design from Asia: Young Researchers’ Workshop, SOAS, 2 March 2012.
‘Finding a New Way: Survival and Revival of the Old in Kyoto in the Meiji period’, presented to the European Association of Japanese Studies, Tallinn, Estonia, 24–27 August 2011.
‘Aged Goods and Old Values: Displaying Material Culture in the Early Meiji Period’ given to the Royal Asiatic Society Graduate Seminar Series, 23 February 2011.
‘Gathering for Tea in Meiji Japan’ given to the East and South East Asia History Seminar, SOAS, 19 January 2008.
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS AND INVITED LECTURES
‘Lecture on Japanese Religion: Shintoism’, delivered at the First Conference of the Academy for the Study of Religion, UWI Headquarters, Jamaica, 26 April 2018.
‘Chanoyu and Meiji Prints’, presented to the Research Seminar, the TUFS Program for Japan Studies in Global Context, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan, 7 August 2017.
‘The Cultural History of Tea in Japan’, given on behalf of the Embassy of Japan at ‘Let’s Have Cawfee Tea!’, Nanook Enterprises, Jamaica, 29 October 2016.
‘Chanoyu in Woodblock Prints’, presented at the Kuzushiji Workshop, Frankfurt-Goethe University, 23 July 2016.
‘Women’s Status in Modern Japan’ given to the Modern Japan Course, SOAS, 31 January 2011.
‘Gathering for Tea in Meiji Japan’ given to the Faculty of Cultural Resources Studies, University of Tokyo, 11 December 2008.
COURSES TAUGHT
Postgraduate Courses
Artifacts, Museums and Archives
Theory and Methods of History
Graduate Reading Course in Heritage Studies
Undergraduate Courses
Japanese Culture and Media Discourse from Historical Perspectives
Introduction to World History: From the 17th to 19th century
Introduction to Modern Japan
Modern History of China
History of the Middle East, 1915-1979
Asian World Prior to 1600
Modern Japan: From Meiji to Present
Society and Culture of Meiji Japan (Postgraduate Summer Intensive Course)
COURSES DEVELOPED
- Japanese Culture and Media Discourse in Historical Perspectives (Undergraduate)
- Introduction to Modern Japan (Undergraduate)
- Society and Culture of Meiji Japan (Postgraduate Summer Intensive Course)
- Research Proposal Writing Workshop (Postgraduate)
