Research: (Re)designing narratives: a game studies approach to East Asian post-colonial histories (Provvisorio)
East Asia Curriculum
ABSTRACT
Title: (Re)designing narratives: a game studies approach to East Asian post-colonial histories (Provvisorio)
This project investigates how East Asian video games interpret, negotiate, and reshape collective memory of Japanese colonialism. Integrating approaches from memory studies and game studies, it examines how narrative structures, mechanics, and spatial design construct historical meaning in games developed in Japan and former colonies. Through close textual and ludic analysis, the research explores how contemporary political concerns shape these representations and how player agency participates in circulating, contesting, and transforming public understandings of the colonial past across the region.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
memory studies; game studies; Japanese history; public history; Japanese colonialism; postcolonial studies; museums; religion and popular culture; digital archives
CURRICULUM VITAE
09/2025 – 12/2025: Visiting Graduate Researcher, Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Supervisor: Michael Emmerich.
11/2024 – present: PhD Candidate in Asian and African Civilizations, Istituto Italiano di Studi Orientali (ISO) – Sapienza University of Rome.
Supervisor: Stefano Romagnoli.
04/2023 – 03/2025: MEXT Research Scholar, Waseda University, Tokyo.
Supervisor: Nakajima Seio.
09/2019 – 07/2022: MA in Oriental Languages and Civilizations, Istituto Italiano di Studi Orientali (ISO) – Sapienza University of Rome.
09/2016 – 09/2019: BA in Oriental Languages and Civilizations, Istituto Italiano di Studi Orientali (ISO) – Sapienza University of Rome.