Roslynn Ang

Roslynn Ang is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Global Perspectives on Society Fellow at New York University Shanghai, specializing in Indigenous heritage studies. She serves as a founding member of the Early Career Researchers Network at the Association of Critical Heritage Studies.

Her research operates at the intersection of Anthropology, East Asian Studies, and Settler-Colonial Studies. Key interests include decolonizing methodologies, Ainu performance practices, representations of race and nation, and Japan's colonial history with East Asia and the West. Her ethnographic work critically examines the (in)visibility of Indigenous peoples across the Pacific through frameworks of settler gaze and Indigenous being.

Her current book project Performing Ainu Absence and Presence: Settler Gaze and Indigenous Be-ing in Japan analyzes barriers sustaining Ainu visibility. Recent research focuses on reconceptualizing heritage production through Ainu upopo and rimse performances listed under UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, challenging binaries of authority/disempowerment and global/local dynamics.

Award highlights include:

• Global Perspectives on Society Fellowship (NYU Shanghai)
• Founding role in Association of Critical Heritage Studies' Early Career Researchers Network

Roslynn actively collaborates with the Sapporo Upopo Hozonkai, an Ainu performance group registered under UNESCO Intangible Heritage of Japan, examining how traditional practices navigate settler-colonial contexts while developing co-productive heritage models that transcend consumer-producer dichotomies.