Siti Umairah Bte Adnan

Media Representations of Ainu Women in Japanese Pop Culture

Advisor: Associate Professor Deborah Shamoon

E-mail: e0235244@u.nus.edu

Umairah is an MA student who graduated from NUS with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Japanese Studies in 2022. Her thesis will examine the representations of Ainu girls in Wajin (non-Ainu Japanese) produced manga, drawing on postcolonial theory and indigenous studies. She became increasingly interested in pursuing the topics of indigeneity, Ainu representation in Japanese media, and postcolonialism after completing her undergraduate thesis that examined the perpetuation of colonial ideas and images of Hokkaido and the Ainu in the manga Golden Kamuy and the positionality of its Wajin author.