Новый грант на £1,3 млн изучит влияние японской империи на Тихий океан через музыку

We're hosting a new £1.3m (€1.5m) research project, led by Dr Amanda Hsieh, shedding light on the history and impact of the Japanese Empire on the Pacific through music. SINJA - Singers of the Japanese Pacific: Gender, Race, and Class in the East Asian Empire's Actor Networks, 1920s-1960s - follows 50 globetrotting singers to uncover stories of people, objects, and ideas that existed during and long after what is normally seen as the fall of the Empire in 1945. Dr Hsieh is Associate Professor of Musicology at our Department of Music. Her project is funded by a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant. Impact on culture and politics At its height, the Japanese Empire controlled 20 per cent of the world's population. Few people outside specialist circles know this. By coining the term "Japanese Pacific", SINJA makes clear the ambitions and reach of the Japanese Empire, stretching from its East and Southeast Asian territories to Japanese settler communities in the Americas. Through archival research and oral history collection, SINJA will capture the stories connected to singers who travelled and performed across the Japanese Pacific. Bringing to light figures who have been obscured in conventional histories of empire, the project will reframe our understanding of singers who were women, mixed-race, and part of the larger movement of people. It will also reframe our understanding of the Japanese Empire itself, revealing the impact this musical world had on the culture and politics of the Pacific across roughly 50 years. In addition to books and articles, SINJA will produce a digital map illuminating the journeys and stories related to the singers featured, alongside wider digitised data available for future research. Talented early-career researchers ERC Starting Grants are awarded to talented early-career researchers who have already produced excellent work, are ready to work independently, and show potential to be research leaders. The project will recruit two postdoctoral fellows and draw on expertise from our departments of Geography, History, and School of Modern Languages and Cultures.