Oliver Moxham

Biography

Oliver Moxham is a 2022 Daiwa Scholar in Japanese Studies PhD researcher at the Cambridge Heritage Research Centre in the Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge. As a proficient Japanese-speaker, he has studied heritage sites commemorating the Asia-Pacific War (1931-45) in Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan. His work explores how language and cultural background leads to dissonant visitor interpretations at conflict heritage sites.

Research

Oliver’s PhD research quantifies and nuances “dissonant” visitor interpretation, where heritage visitors disagree with historical narratives presented at heritage sites. He conducted ethnographic fieldwork at six Asia-Pacific War heritage sites in Japan: the Yūshūkan Museum; the National Showa Memorial Museum; the Center for the Tokyo Raids and War Damages; the Kyoto Museum for World Peace; Ryōzen Kannon temple; and Kyoto Ryōzen Gokoku Shrine.

His fieldwork has produced the Dissonant/consonant Interpretive Semiotics of Cultural heritage (DISC) method, which can be used to understand domestic/international dissonance at heritage sites. The method analyses interpretive trends in Google Maps reviews, first by language community and then by site, to understand which sites demonstrate greater dissonance, identify the most prominent dissonant themes, and determine the relationship between translation and dissonance. The results are compared with data from interpretive tours, where the researcher observes on-site visitor interpretation to see what themes are reflected in online ethnography.

Key Publications

Key publications

Moxham, O. (forthcoming) ‘Translating imperial violence: dissonant/consonant interpretive semiotics of imperialism at Japanese Asia-Pacific War museums’. Heritage, Memory & Conflict.

Moxham, O. (forthcoming) ‘Whose sign is it, anyway: semiotic and lingual translations of the Nanjing Massacre (1937-38) and dissonant/consonant visitor interpretation at Japanese museums’. Archaeological Review from Cambridge.

Moxham, O. (2024) ‘Modern Warfare in the Old Capital, 1931–1945: Kyoto during the Asia-Pacific War’, in Modern Kyoto Research.

Moxham, O. (2023) ‘Untangling Difficult Heritage: Arguing for Equal Linguistic Access for Stakeholders of Past International Conflicts’. Archaeological Review from Cambridge.

Moxham, O. (2023) ‘Camouflaged War Heritage: Brecciated War Heritage Sites in Kyoto’, in Buccheim & Coates (eds) War Memory and East Asian Conflicts, 1930–1945.

Moxham, O. (2020-25) Beyond Japan research podcast.