Since its inception in 2008, the Oxford Japanese History Workshop (OJHW) has fostered a community of intellectuals whose research touches on a wide range of themes, topics, and timescales in Japanese history. The OJHW has been especially committed to the development of innovative approaches in global and transnational history, particularly from non-state approaches. With an ever-growing number of doctoral researchers, postdoctoral fellows, and affiliated researchers, the OJHW is a burgeoning centre of expertise that continues to generate new understandings of East Asia and beyond. Its members have produced research that has appeared in journals ranging from Modern Asian Studies and The Journal of Asian Studies to The Historical Journal, Past and Present, and The American Historical Review. The OJHW continues to host international conferences that bring together specialists in Japanese history and many others working across disciplinary and institutional boundaries. Beyond academia, the OJHW is engaged in a range of outreach and service activities. It strives to bridge the gap between the ivory tower and the general public, working with nonprofit organisations, artists, farming communities, and grassroots activists. The work of OJHW members has appeared in sites ranging from local newspapers to major international events such as the Venice Biennale.
For an introductory overview of the transnational and non-state approaches shared by many members of the OJHW, see the following:
- Introduction to Anarchist Modernity: Cooperatism and Japanese-Russian Intellectual Relations in Modern Japan, by Sho Konishi. Harvard University Asia Center, 2013.
- Introduction to Reopening the Opening of Japan: Transnational Approaches to Japan and the Wider World, edited by Lewis Bremner, Manimporok Dotulong, and Sho Konishi. Brill, 2024.
- Tanaka, Stefan. “From the Margins: There Must Be More to History than Logic.” Boundary 2 51, no. 1 (2024): 203–22. https://doi.org/10.1215/01903659-10694253. (Review of Japan's Russia)
Convenors:
Convenor 2025–26: Toma-Jin Morikawa-Fouquet
Co-convenors 2024–25: Federica Costantino and Maggie Bryan
Convenor 2023–24: Joel Littler
Co-convenors 2022–23: Alice Baldock and Chui-Joe Tham
Convenor 2020–22: Chinami Oka
