Godefroy Noémi

Godefroy Noémi is a Lecturer in Japanese Studies at the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (INALCO), specializing in the history of medieval and modern Japan (12th-19th century), Ainu history, culture and society, and Japanese language methodology. She serves as Co-responsible for L1 civilization tutoring and L1S2 civilization tutorials, and is the Co-editor of the journal "Cipango - Japanese Studies Notebooks" since 2018. Previously, she held significant leadership roles as Deputy Director (2020-2021) and then Co-Director (2021-2023) of the Department of Japanese Studies.

Dr. Noémi's research focuses on the history of modern Japan (17th-19th centuries), with particular emphasis on the history, society, and oral tradition of the Ainu people (natives of Japan and Russia). Her scholarly work extensively explores the history of Japanese colonialism origins (18th-19th centuries), Japanese cartography (17th-20th centuries), and Japanese-Russian relations (18th-19th centuries). She currently leads the project "Orality/aurality and memory - Minorized, erased, forgotten sources and corpora in East Asia" as part of IFRAE's research team.

Analysis of Dr. Noémi's publication record reveals a consistent scholarly trajectory deepening our understanding of Ainu history within broader Japanese historical contexts. Her work demonstrates increasing sophistication in connecting Ainu studies with global indigenous studies frameworks, particularly examining how colonial encounters shaped ethnic identities in East Asia. The geographical scope of her research has expanded from primarily Japanese contexts to incorporate Russian perspectives, reflecting her interest in Japanese-Russian relations and transnational historical approaches to Ainu studies.

• Co-founder and member of the reading committee of "Japon(s) - The SFEJ research notebook" (since 2016)
• Member of the external scientific council for the "Cartography of the Far East at the BnF" project (since 2023)
• Member of the experts of the International Working Group for Indigenous Peoples (IWGIP) for the Asia region

Dr. Noémi actively engages with public scholarship through prominent media appearances, including interviews with Le 1 Hebdo discussing Ainu culture preservation, France Culture's Le Salon noir program examining Ainu history and archaeology, and multiple podcasts exploring Hokkaido and Ainu history from premodern to contemporary periods. Her work effectively bridges academic research with public understanding of Indigenous issues in Japan.