Dr Darren Aoki

Associate Professor in World History and Oral History

Dr Aoki's specialisms are in the social and cultural history of modern Japan with a focus on gender and sexuality as it intersects with race and ethnicity. His PhD explored masculinity and same-sex desire in the postwar period in Japan.

More recently, he has turned his attention to issues of identity in the trans-Pacific diaspora of Japanese. Through his research on Nikkei (people of Japanese descent), he has developed methodological and theoretical expertise, including in research, teaching, and community outreach, in oral history.

Qualifications

Qualifications

PhD 2005 University of Cambridge, Oriental Studies; Peterhouse (UK)

• Dissertation: ‘Sexual Solidarity and the Ethics and Aesthetics of Manliness in Early 1970s Japan’

MA 1997 School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (UK)

• Dissertation: ‘By Women, For Women: Women’s Employment in the Occupation Era’***
• ***Awarded Distinction
• Awarded Ivan Morris Prize for best dissertation in Japanese Studies in the UK, 1998)

BA History 1990 University of Lethbridge (Canada)

• Major: Early Modern Western Europe
• Minor: Modern Western Europe, Modern East Asia

Professional membership

Professional memberships include:

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA)
• Fellow of Cambridge Commonwealth Society

 British Association of Japanese Studies

• Oral History Society, UK
• Oral History Association, USA
• British Association of Canadian Studies

Teaching interests

As Lecturer in World History, Dr Aoki’s resume of modules which he leads or on which he teaches include:

Masters:

• MAHI722: Key Themes in Modern Japanese History
• MAHI708: Key Themes in the Postwar History of Japan

In approaching World History, a key emphasis of Dr Aoki’s is connection: trans-national and global contact and connects through human movement. Far away cultures ‘over there’ are never just that: they are here.

Areas of expertise for post-graduate supervision:

• Modern Japan and East Asia
• Oral History
• Diaspora, contact zones, and postcolonial history
• Histories of the ‘Everyday’
• Gender and sexuality – especially Trans-Pacific same-sex/queer
• Race and ethnicity
• cultural history, visual culture

Doctoral Supervision - Current

Research interests

History of Identities and Ideas in Modern Transnational Encounter

• Race/Ethnicity and Japanese Trans-Pacific Diaspora
• Gender and Sexualities – Masculinities, Homosexuality, Popular Culture
• Social, Cultural, & Oral History, including Digital Storytelling

Dr Aoki’s current area of research focuses on questions of identity and inheritance in the trans-Pacific diaspora of Japanese, through the use of ‘talking history’ methodologies: oral history (life-story, collaborative narration, story-telling circles); digital story-telling; memory soundscapes.

*****Nikkei Memory Capture Project (NMCP)*****

The Nikkei Memory Capture Project (NMCP) is a long-term initiative to incite memory and record stories narrating the local, national, and trans-national Nikkei (‘people of Japanese descent’) experience. This is a trans-national collaboration bringing together the University of Plymouth -History and the University of Lethbridge, Centre for Oral History and Tradition. It is co-lead by Dr Carly Adams (Associate Professor in Sports and Kinesiology). The Project includes a team of post-graduate and undergraduate student researchers. 

The focus of the NMCP is distinctive because it seeks to hear the little understood story of what happened in the latter half of the twentieth century in southern Alberta. It one of the few of North America’s significant populations of Japanese descent uninterrupted across the entirety of the twentieth century. Its incorporation of numerous waves of migration and the ‘contact zones’ these waves created with other ethnic, religious, and cultural groups has created a unique identity that – in important ways – invites us to interrogate dominant national and transnational narratives of Nikkei in unique ways.

The NMCP emerges from a pilot project of interviews with fifty individuals focusing on the memories of nisei (2nd generation) and how they shaped the communities from the 1950s to the present. Other topics which the NMCP has begun to explore include:

• Special oral history focus on sansei (third generation)
• Exploration of inter-racial intimacies and mixed-race identities
• Interrogating what constitutes ‘Nikkei’ and ‘Japanese’
• Sport, recreation and leisure
• Food and culture

The NMCP has been made possible thanks to the generous support of:

• Community of Research Excellence Development Opportunities Research Funding
• Plymouth University, Faculty of Arts and Humanities Research Impact Seed Funding
• Centre for Oral History and Tradition Award
• Nikkei Cultural Society of Lethbridge and Area Grant

The NMCP is a co-creative community partnership including the following local Stakeholders:

• Nikkei Cultural Society of Lethbridge and Area
• Nikka Yuko Japanese Canadian Centennial Garden
• Galt Museum and Archives

Other research

*****PTSD/dstp [Post-traumaticStress Disorder digital story-telling project*****

This pilot research is a collaborative initiative co-led by Dr Aoki (University of Plymouth – History), and Dr Jane Harrold and Dr Richard Porter at the Britannia Royal Naval College.

The PTSD/dstp aims in the first instance to explore the role that the use of new communication technologies plays in personal narration (Digital Storytelling - DST) by active service personnel especially on operations and those closest to them.  It includes a research team of students to help develop a digital storytelling database led by Mr. Ciaran Bishop (BA Hons History, University of Plymouth), and which has included volunteer research by David Angeles, Harrison Rees, Lucy DeGroot, Thomas E Davies, and Elliot Clark.

Research degrees awarded to supervised students

Doctoral Supervision - Current

Grants & contracts

Creative practice & artistic projects

Reports & invited lectures

Golden Maple Reception - Keynote Lecture
'In the Wondrous Reverberations of Silence: Mel Murakami and a Generation of Japanese Canadian Visionaries'
Dr Darren J. Aoki, Dr Carly Adams  
Nikka Yuko Japanese-Canadian Centennial Friendship Garden (Lethbridge, Canada)
19 September 2019

Raymond Historical Society - Keynote Lecture
'Japanese Candians and Raymond (Title TBC)'
Dr Darren J. Aoki, Dr Carly Adams 
Raymond Historical Society (Canada)
18 September 2019

Oral History Unit & Collective 
'An Oral Historical Intervention in a Historiography of Erasure: A Case STudy of Japanese in Canada and Memories of the Postwar at the End of Life'
Dr Darren J. Aoki  
University of Newcastle (UK)
17 February 2019

Queer Asia
'Queering Assimilation? Trans-Pacific Desires and Not-Becoming White'
Dr Darren J. Aoki 
School of Oriental and African Studies (UK)
15 March 2017

Galt Museum and Archive - Public Lecture Series
'Mukashi, Mukashi - Nikkei History in Southern Alberta: Stories of Global Significance'
Dr Darren J. Aoki  
Lethbridge (Canada)
26 May 2016

Conferences organised

"Stop the Presses!' Exhibition - with Keynote Address and Memory Capture 2017 Initiative
2017-2018 Nikkei Memory Capture Project Launch Event (including, Nikkei Memory Centre and Memory Capture Booths)
Dr Darren J. Aoki, Dr Carly Adams, Nikkei Memory Capture Project Student Research Team
Galt Museum & Archives, Nikka Yuko Japanese-Canadian Centennial Friendship Garden, Lethbridge (Canada)
9 July 2017 (Summer 2017)  

Trans-national Masterclass in Oral History
University of Plymouth - History, in collaboration with Centre for Oral History and Tradition (University of Lethbridge, Canada)
Dr Darren J. Aoki, Professor Carol Williams

• 8 May 2019 - Commemorating the Spanish Influenza: Dr Ida Milne (Carlow College, Ireland) and Dr Esyllt Jones (University of Manitoba, Canada)
• 30 October 2017 - Inheritance: Dr Alan Butler (University of Plymouth) and Dr Suzanne Lenon (University of Lethbridge, Canada)
• 1 December 2016 - Communities: Dr J. Harrold (Britannia Royal Naval College) and Dr DJ Aoki (University of Plymouth)

University of Plymouth & Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation
'Japan400 Plymouth International Maritime Synergies Symposium'
Speakers included: Captain Keizo Kitagawa (Embassy of Japan, Defence Attache), Professor Ian Nish (LSE), Dr Antony Best (LSE), Dr Harry Bennett (University of Plymouth), Professor Martin Attrill (Marine Institute, University of Plymouth), Dr Steve Fletcher (Centre for Marine and Coastal Policy Research, University of Plymouth), Ms Kazumi Wakita (Tokai University), Mr Pete Kibel (Fishtek Consulting Ltd.), Mrs Alison Seabeck (Shadow Defence Secretary, MP), Vice-Admiral Yoji Koda (Japanese Marine Self Defense Forces), Dr Alessio Patalano (Kings College London), Mr Peter Roberts (Royal United Services Institute)
University of Plymouth (UK)
29 September 2014

Other academic activities

JAPAN400 PLYMOUTH

Festival Leader: Darren J. Aoki*

This international festival celebrated the 400 years of Anglo-Japanese Relations. It involved the co-ordination of nearly 500 participants. 

Key features include:

·       Sponsorship and partnerships with a range of key sector organisations and leaders: Plymouth University, Plymouth Marine Institute, Peninsula Arts, Plymouth City Council, Plymouth Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Heart of the Southwest LEP, Sutton Harbour Holdings PLC, Embassy of Japan in the UK, Embassy of UK in Japan, Japan Society London, Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, Japanese Ministry of Forestry Fisheries and Agriculture, Sake Samurai, Kawasaki Precision Machinery Ltd., Peter Gorton’s JT Academy (British Masterchef Peter Gorton), First Great Western, De Vere Hotels and Resorts, Umu London (Michelin-Star Chef Ishii Yoshinori)

·        Engagement with community organisations, internationally-acclaimed artists and performers, and local business, for example: Devon and Cornwall Scouts, Play it Again Theatre Group, Ronin-kai Kendo Club, British Shintaidō, Bengala Hand-Dye Craft (Totnes), Totnes Harp Centre, Devon Twinning Society, JTJ Academy, Wagamama, Goto Sushi Plymouth, Square Sails, Silicon Sensing Ltd., Pure Mediate Ltd., Hibiki Ichikawa and Akari Mochizuki, Kagemusha Taiko, Yukki Yaura

·        Media coverage of event and Plymouth University, included: BBC (TV – BBC One Spotlight and Radio), ITV, Western Morning News, Plymouth Herald, Sound-Art Radio, social media and internet

·        Consultations: Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai, TV France 3