Michael Hayata
- Visiting Assistant Professor
PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2022
459 Rush Rhees Library
michael.hayata@rochester.edu
Office Hours: TR 12:30-1:30PM or by appointment
Research Overview
Interests: Japanese History; Japanese imperialism; race, indigeneity, and settler colonialism; and theories of capitalist development
I am a social and cultural historian of modern Japan, with a particular interest in the relationship between imperialism, capitalism, and mass/popular culture. My research examines cultural production within the indigenous Ainu villages of Hokkaido during the first half of the twentieth century, which I argue constituted a dialogical space where Ainu people from all walks of life envisioned a program of community development based on agricultural cooperatives, land redistribution, school desegregation, and housing reform to confront the colonial institutions that displaced them.
My dissertation is based on archival research across Hokkaido and Tokyo in Japan and was supported by the Fulbright Program.