Wendy Matsumura

University of California San Diego

Okinawa after Area (Studies), or Writing about Reversion in the Neoliberal University

This presentation is a reflection on how studies of Okinawan history are legible within North American academia, and how we might think and write about reversion in a manner that does not reproduce or exacerbate colonial relationships through our research practices. Specifically, how this question pertains to the conventions of historical narrative that move beyond histories of anti-capitalist or anti-colonial struggles which stay within the context of labor history.

Wendy Matsumura is Associate Professor of History at University of California San Diego, where she teaches courses on modern Japanese and Okinawan history. She is currently working on a monograph titled Waiting for the Cool Moon: Subterranean Struggles in the Heart of the Japanese Empire.