PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Andrea Mariko Grant is a Research Associate and Adjunct Professor in History at the University of Victoria. A social anthropologist by training, her work explores the intersections between art, memory, and politics, with previous research focused on post-genocide Rwanda. As PI on the project, she explores contemporary Japanese Canadian art, as well as the tanka and haiku poetry of her Issei (first generation) Japanese Canadian grandmother. She holds a PhD in social anthropology from the University of Oxford and was previously based at the University of Cambridge. A board member of the National Association of Japanese Canadians (Toronto chapter), she also curates public history and public art projects. She was recently a visiting scholar at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan. (Photo by Allison Woo.)

RESEARCHER

Elysha Rei is a Japanese-Australian artist whose intricate paper-based works explore memory, identity, and belonging through hand-cut paper and site-specific installations. Based in Brisbane, she holds a BVA, MBA, and is a PhD candidate at QUT researching how Nikkei Australian identity is archived through contemporary arts practice. Over two decades, Rei has exhibited, curated, and managed cultural projects nationally and internationally. She is a 2018 Asialink Arts alumni, a research fellow and artist researcher for the global project Past Wrongs, Future Choices (UVic, Canada), and the inaugural Chair of Nikkei Australia, a grassroots organization dedicated to Japanese-Australian heritage. (Photo by PixelPunk 2025.)

RESEARCHER

Jennifer Noji is a Yonsei, fourth generation Japanese American, who grew up in New Jersey and currently lives in Los Angeles. As the granddaughter of Gila River and Minidoka camp survivors, she has dedicated much of her personal and professional life to learning and teaching about the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans and other historical injustices. She holds a BA (Rutgers University), MA (UCLA), and a PhD (UCLA) in Comparative Literature, and her research explores how literature reckons with legacies of racial and colonial violence. She has published articles on memory, political violence, and collective responsibility in various academic journals and volumes. Jennifer also serves as the Senior Manager in Communications at Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project—a historical and digital archival nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and sharing the history of WWII Japanese American incarceration. 

RESEARCHER

Taís Koshino is a Japanese Brazilian visual artist and researcher. She holds a BA in Social Communication (2015) and an MA in Visual Arts (2022) from the University of Brasília. Working at the intersections of artistic and academic practices, her research investigates the in-between space, ancient and contemporary technologies, Japanese Brazilian diasporic identity, and critical fabulation. In 2024, she was part of Past Wrongs, Future Choices Spring Residency (UVic, Canada). She has participated in exhibitions, residencies, and publications in Brazil and abroad, at institutions such as the Modern Art Museum of Rio de Janeiro, the Goethe-Institut Indonesia, the Sigmund Freud Museum, and Art Basel Miami. (Photo by Pamila Luik.)

RESEARCHER

Rose-Keiko Higa is a Japanese American researcher and archivist at the Washington State Historical Society. She holds a BA in Art History from Oberlin College. Her past research includes collaborations on curatorial projects such as Miné Okubo’s Masterpiece: The Art of Citizen 13660 (2021) at the Japanese American National Museum and Reframing Dioramas: The Art of Preserving Wilderness (2024) at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Her current work explores contemporary Asian American artwork and its intersection with race, ethnicity, and equity. (Photo copyrighted J. Paul Getty Trust 2021.)