Articles by Darren J. Aoki

Darren J. Aoki (PhD Cantab, MA SOAS) is Associate Professor in World History and Oral History at the University of Plymouth, United Kingdom. His research interests include gender and sexuality in twentieth century Japan, and more recently, the history of the Japanese diaspora with a methodological focus on oral history and digital storytelling. In 2011, Aoki initiated an oral history pilot project exploring the southern Alberta nisei experience. This grew into the Nikkei Memory Capture Project (NMCP), a long-term community-based oral history project that was awarded a Social Science and Research Council of Canada Insight Grant (2019-2023) and Arts and Humanities Research Council Impact Acceleration Account Fellowship funding (2022-2023). The NMCP was launched in summer 2017 by Aoki and co-leader Professor Carly Adams (University of Lethbridge), to spur the narration and analysis of the cultural and social history of Japanese Canadians between the 1950s and 1970s. It is a transnational collaborative initiative bringing together the University of Plymouth and the University of Lethbridge, and key southern Alberta Nikkei community stakeholders. The NMCP, partnered with the Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden, was shortlisted in 2023 for Canada’s top history prize, the Governor General’s History Award, Excellence in Community Engagement.