About

My research is shaped by my trajectory and encounters, detailed below:

I grew up in Romania, and started studying Japanese language and culture at Bucharest University. I then spent 5 years in Japan, earning a bachelor degree in the History of Japanese literature at Kanazawa University 金沢大学. I studied medieval noh theatre scripts 謡曲 with Nishimura Satoshi 西村聡 (and performed in the university noh theatre club), early modern urban fiction with Kigoshi Osamu 木越治, and Buddhist cultural history with Mori Masahide 森雅秀. I wrote my BA thesis on a seventeenth-century otogi-zoshi illustrated text about a mythical island paradise, Mount Penglai (jp. Horai 蓬莱).　

I then completed MA and PhD in History of Art at SOAS, learning from Timon Screech, Shane McCausland, Charlotte Horlyck, Charles Gore, Peter Sharrock, Lucia Dolce, Christine Guth, Jenny Preston. I completed a PhD thesis on the spatial imaginary in the visual culture of seventeenth-century Japan, and co-organized a symposium with Doreen Mueller.

I went on to research historical maps of Japan with a Robert and Lisa Sainsbury fellowship, leading to a symposium. I was honored to work with Mami Mizutori, Simon Kaner, Seung Yeong San, Yasuko Tsuchikane and Yoshida Yasuyuki 吉田泰幸.

I continued my study of historical maps in Leiden with IIAS and Isaac Alfred Ailion fellowships, collaborating with Martijn Storms on an exhibition and forthcoming publication.

At the invitation of Melanie Trede, I joined the Material Text Cultures research project at Heidelberg University, where I researched manuscript and print cultures in early modern Japan, with a focus on Ihara Saikaku.

I currently teach the history and theory of art at the Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University.