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Dr Rowena Ward

Location: Building 19.2089
Phone: 42214751
Email: roward@uow.edu.au

Biography

After finishing school, I spent a year in Yamanashi Prefecture as an exchange student before graduating with a BA (Hons) in Japanese from the University of Newcastle.  As an undergraduate, I spent one year on a Japanese Government Monbusho scholarship at the University of Hiroshima.  After graduation, I worked at a Japanese company in Sydney and then went to Okayama Prefecture as a Co-ordinator of International Relations for two years on the JET programme. Upon my return to Australia, I completed my MA (Asian Studies) and PhD in Politics and International Relations at UNSW where I wrote my thesis on racism, nationalism, the migrant worker issue and the structure of the Japanese labour market. During my PhD, I spent time as a research student at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo.   

I joined the Faculty of Arts at University of Wollongong in June 2008.

Current Research Projects

I am presently researching the experiences of the Japanese civilians, particularly the women, who were living in Manchukuo at the time of the Soviet attack.  My main focus is on the experience of the small number of women who were captured by the Soviets and taken to the Soviet Union where they were forced to work.

I am also interested in the negotiations between the Australian government and the British, Dutch and French governments for the internment in Australia of the Japanese who were living in the South Pacific at the time of the outbreak of the Pacific War.

Selected Publications

“Japanese Government Policy and the Reality of the Lives of the Zanryū fujin (Japanese Women Abandoned in China)”, (Portal Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies Vol. 3 No. 2 July 2006).

“Japaneseness, Exile and the Japanese Citizens Abandoned in China”, Japanese Studies Vol. 24 No. 2 September 2006 pp. 139-151.

“The Queer Stopover: How Queer Travels in the Language Classroom”, with Gloria de Vincenti and Angela Giovanangeli, published in March 2007 in the Asian Studies of Australia Special Edition of e-FLT (Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching).

“Left Behind: Japan’s Wartime Defeat and Stranded Women in Manchukuo”, http://www.Japanfocus.org      

 'Returning from Exile: The Japanese Citizens from the Former Manchuria' in P. Allatson and J. McCormack (eds) “Exile Cultures, Misplaced Identities" Amsterdam: Rodophi Press: 2008.