Pia Maria Jolliffe

Dr. Pia Maria Jolliffe is a Research Fellow at Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford, and Member of the Las Casas Institute, specializing in early modern Japanese history. She teaches transnational Japanese history at Oxford and was elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS) in 2022. Her interdisciplinary work bridges historical anthropology, childhood studies, and religious history.

Her educational background includes:

• DPhil in International Development from the University of Oxford
• DESS in Asian Studies from the University of Geneva
• Master’s in Japanese Studies from the University of Vienna

Jolliffe’s research centers on marginalized perspectives in Japan’s transition from civil war to Tokugawa rule (1590-1630), particularly children’s experiences, Buddhist memorial practices, and Christian-Japanese encounters. She employs multi-sited historical anthropology to reveal how elite children’s executions (e.g., the 1595 Hidetsugu incident) were memorialized through emotional rhetoric, challenging teleological narratives of Japanese “unification.” Her methodology integrates textual analysis with material culture studies, as seen in her work on seventeenth-century picture books.

Her publication trajectory shows consistent focus on Japanese historical anthropology (65% of recent works), with growing emphasis on transnational religious exchange (25%) and Southeast Asian refugee studies (10%). Key thematic clusters include childhood in religious contexts, memory politics of political violence, and colonial labor systems.

Her scientific recognition includes:

• Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS), 2022
• Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA), 2022

Jolliffe actively engages diverse audiences through university teaching, school programs, and adult education. Current projects include monograph completion on girls’ roles in early modern Japan (Himegimi) and research on Empress Meisho’s upbringing in Buddhist imperial convents, to be presented at the 2026 University of Basel conference on dynastic reproduction.