Dr Taka Oshikiri is Lecturer in History. She joined the Department in 2013, and teaches the undergraduate courses: History of Modern China; Modern Japan: Meiji to the Present; Asian World Prior to 1600; and History of the Middle East 1915-1973. Dr Oshikiri’s area of research is the social and cultural history of modern Japan. She is particularly interested in the history of tea culture, the history of commodity and consumption, and in the history of etiquette and manners. In 2018 she published her book, Gathering for Tea in Modern Japan, which is based on her PhD thesis.