Dr. Michael Roellinghoff
PhD University of Toronto

Assistant Professor

Email: roellimr@hku.hk

I am an historian of modern Japan with a focus on the 19th century colonization of Hokkaido, its transpacific entanglements, the impact of colonization on the Indigenous Ainu people, as well as their resistance thereto. My book manuscript focuses on the relationship between the legal doctrine of terra nullius and "de-indigenization"; that is, colonial discourses and policies which claim that the Ainu are non-native to Hokkaido. In addition, my current research examines related topics such as the role of memorial sites in maintaining colonial power relations, colonialism as a social determinant of health, and Ainu memoirs as historical texts.

Previous to my arrival at the University of Hong Kong, I was an Associate Researcher at the University of Alberta and a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Tokyo.

Research Interest:

*Modern Japan and Northeast Asia
*Settler colonialism
*The transpacific
*Critical Indigenous studies