I study the history of modern Japan, with a focus on how Japanese society has shaped and has been shaped by projects of organized violence and control. My research examines how historical processes of militarization intersect with everyday life and how military power has been used both to reinforce and to disrupt social divisions based on race, gender, nationality, and class.

My current book project, Garrison Life: Militarization and Everyday Life in Japan at the Dawn of the Postwar American Empire, uses hitherto unexamined sources to recover the military aspects of the Allied Occupation of Japan (1945–1952). While most historians have portrayed the Occupation as an indirect project of political reform, I demonstrate that it was also a direct project of military power production. Understanding the Occupation in this way allows us to see how social processes of militarization continued to shape everyday life in Japan and East Asia after World War II. This research also uncovers links between the military project of the Occupation and other Cold War military projects, including the Korean War and the global proliferation of U.S. bases.

I completed my PhD in June 2020 under the direction of Sheldon Garon at Princeton University. I was appointed Visiting Assistant Professor of Modern Asian History at the University of Oregon in 2023, and I am currently executing a year-long research grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Japan–United States Friendship Commission.