MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale
MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale
Council on East Asian Studies

Olivia Dobbs

Council on East Asian Studies
Academic Year: 2027-28, 2026-27
Research Interests:

Modern Japanese History; East Asian History; Memory Studies; Linguistics; Heritage Studies

Olivia Dobbs was born and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina. At the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, she completed her B.A. in History and Japanese in 2022, and a dual M.A./M.S. degree in History (with a concentration in Public History) and Architecture (with a concentration in Critical Heritage) in 2025. Her graduate thesis explored the memory politics and heritage authorization of UNESCO’s “Sites of Meiji Japan’s Industrial Revolution,” specifically the ways in which Japanese organizations and museums engage with the history of Korean forced labor at the World Heritage sites. From 2025 to 2026, she completed the 10-month program at the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies in Yokohama, Japan. At Yale, she hopes to further explore how local, national, and international organizations reckon with negative history in both Japan and South Korea. Her other interests include translating, historic preservation, and birdwatching.