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Tomoki Yamada

History, University of Birmingham

Thesis title:

The League of Nations Mandates System as a Trans-imperial Arena of (Anti-)Colonialism

I am a second-year PhD student at the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Birmingham. Before starting my doctoral studies in Birmingham, I obtained a master’s degree in contemporary history at Kyoto University in Japan.

My research interests pertain to transimperial history, global history, anti-colonialism and the League of Nations.

A central theme of my doctoral project has been to explore anti-colonial petitioning and the League of Nations mandates system as a transimperial arena of colonialism and anti-colonialism. 


Research Area

  • History
  • Imperial/Colonial History

Publications

  • 'Meeting Dr Sakiko Nakao, the Author of Nationaliser le panafricanisme : La décolonisation au Sénégal, en Haute-Volta et au Ghana (1945–1962)', CTH Newsletter, 3, 3–6, 2023.
  • 'Indians and Tanganyika: Colonisation Ideas, the Mandates System and Petitions to the League of Nations', Shakai kagaku, 52(4), 117–149, 2023 [in Japanese].
  • 'Meeting Professor Kristin Hoganson and Professor Jay Sexton, the Co-editors of Crossing Empires: Taking U.S. History into Transimperial Terrain', CTH Newsletter, 2, 1–4, 2023.
  • 'Meeting Dr Samuël Coghe, the Author of Population Politics in the Tropics: Demography, Health and Transimperialism in Colonial Angola', CTH Newsletter, 1, 1–3, 2022.
  • 'Beyond Imperial Borders: Recent Scholarship on Trans-imperial History', Shakai kagaku, 50(3), 49–60, 2020 [in Japanese].


Conferences

  • 'Writing Petitions Beyond Empire: Togolese Anticolonialism and West African Print Culture circa 1920', 67th African Studies Association Annual Meeting, Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile, 12 December 2024.

  • 'Ripples from South West Africa: The Bondelswarts Rebellion and Transimperial Dissenting Voices', New Approaches to Transimperial History, Universität Leipzig, 7 December 2024.

  • 'African Studies from the Other Shore: African American Intellectuals and the League of Nations Mandates', How Africans Narrated "African History": "African Historiographies" from Local Histories in Africa, National Museum of Ethnology, Japan, 24 November 2024 [in Japanese].

  • ''Anti-imperial Groundwater' in West Africa: Togolese Anticolonial Petitioning in a Transimperial Nexus, 1918–23', 33rd World History Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco State University, 29 June 2024.
  • ''Send All Complaints [to] the League of Nations': Togolese Anticolonial Petitioning across Imperial Boundaries, 1918–23', 2e Rendez-vous d’histoire coloniale : (Anti)colonialisme et (inter)nationalisme, Archives diplomatiques de Nantes, 21 June 2024.
  • ''Anti-imperial Groundwater' Flowing through West Africa: Petitions from Togo and the League of Nations Mandates System, 1918–22', 48th Annual Meeting of the French Colonial Historical Society / 48e congrès annuel de la Société historique coloniale française, University of Virginia, 25 May 2024.

  • 'Collaboration for Transimperial History', Collaborations Roundtable, Transimperial and Anti-colonial History Group at the University of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh [Online], 12 April 2024.
  • 'Tanganyika and Indians in the Interwar Transimperial Settings: Colonial Aspirations and Anti-colonial Petitioning', 66th African Studies Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco Marriott Marquis, 30 November 2023.
  • 'Togo in a Trans-imperial Nexus: Petitions from West Africa and the League of Nations Mandates System, 1918–1922', LSE International History Research Seminar, London School of Economics and Political Science, 11 October 2023.
  • 'Anti-colonial Petitioning and the League of Nations Mandates System as a Trans-imperial Nexus', Culture, Power and Identity: School of History and Cultures Postgraduate Research Conference, University of Birmingham, 5 May 2023.
  • 'The League of Nations Mandates System as a Trans-imperial Arena of (Anti-)Colonialism', PG Research Gathering, University of Birmingham, 18 April 2023.
  • 'Indians and Tanganyika: Colonialism, the Mandates System and Petitions to the League of Nations, c. 1914–27', 8th Global History Collaborative Summer Institute, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), 30 August 2022.
  • 'British Colonial Education and F. Lugard: India, Africa, and Hong Kong', Doshisha Studies in Colonialism, Doshisha University, 26 October 2020 [in Japanese].
  • 'Frederick Lugard's Education Policies and the Politics of Comparison Between British Colonies in the Early Twentieth Century: India, Nigeria, and Hong Kong', HistoriansWorkshop 8th Research Showcase, University of Tokyo, 1 August 2019.


Memberships

  • Center for Transimperial History (as Coordinator)
  • African Studies Association
  • French Colonial Historical Society / Société d'histoire coloniale française
  • World History Association

Conference Organisation

  • New Approaches to Transimperial History, Universität Leipzig, 5–7 December 2024. https://recentglobe.uni-leipzig.de/zentrum/detailansicht/termin/tih-workshop

  • Changing Landscapes: Postgraduate Conference, School of Languages, Cultures, Art History and Music, University of Birmingham, 1 May 2024. https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/lcahm/events/2024/changing-landscapes-postgraduate-conference

  • 2nd Early Career Conference, Historians' Workshop, online, 31 August 2020. https://historiansworkshop.org/2020/08/17/vecc/