Koji Lau-Ozawa
Biography
I am an anthropologist whose research focuses on the archaeology, history, and memory of diaspora and confinement. In particular, my projects center on Japanese Diaspora and the intersections of Japanese American Incarceration Camps and Indigenous lands at a range of sites in California, Utah, and Arizona. In my work, I forefront community accountable research methodologies, working with numerous descendant communities and Tribal governments in collaboration to co-create knowledge of the past and its relevance in the present.
Research Interests
Japanese Diaspora, Settler Colonialism, Camps, Indigenous Lands, Asian American History, Community Based Archaeology, Historical Archaeology, Memory, Oral History, Landscapes
Publications
Lau-Ozawa, K., and J.R. Kennedy. 2025. “Diaspora on the Block: Neighborhood Archaeology as Theory and Method.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 77 (March):101662. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2025.101662.
Lau-Ozawa, K. 2025. “From Santa Barbara to Gila River: Multi-Sited Histories and Collaborative Archaeology.” In Public Archaeology in the 21st Century, edited by James Brooks and Jeremy M. Moss, 119–36. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.
Lau-Ozawa, K. 2023. “Origami Activism, Inalienable Collections, and Crumbling Concrete: Material Engagements with Histories of Violence.” American Anthropologist 125 (2): 435–48. https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.13841.
Lau-Ozawa, K. 2021. “Inscriptions and Silences: Challenges of Bearing Witness at the Gila River Incarceration Camp.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology 25 (3): 851–76. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-020-00568-2.
Lau-Ozawa, K., and D.E. Ross. 2021. “Critical Mass: Charting a Course for Japanese Diaspora Archaeology.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology 25 (3): 577–91. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-020-00561-9.
Lau-Ozawa, K. 2021. “Conglomerate Infrastructures: Ordinary Sites Used for Extraordinary Regimes of Power.” World Archaeology 53 (3): 486–501.
Lau-Ozawa, K. 2020. “Sifting Through Multiple Layers of Violence: The Archaeology of Gardens at a WWII Japanese American Incarceration Camp.” In Archaeologies of Violence and Privilege, edited by Christopher N. Matthews and Bradley D. Phillippi, First edition. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2022.2035804.
Lau-Ozawa, Koji. 2019. “Dissonant Memories of Japanese American Incarceration.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 25 (7): 656–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2018.1534259.
Hauser, M. W., W. Battle-Baptiste, K. Lau-Ozawa, B.L. Voss, R. Bernbeck, S. Pollock, R.H. McGuire, U.Z. Rizvi, C. Hernandez, and S. Atalay. 2018. “Archaeology as Bearing Witness: Archaeology as Bearing Witness.” American Anthropologist 120 (3): 535–36. https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.13071.
Ozawa, K., C. Colwell, K. Thompson, L. Jones, C. Nissley, B.J. Little, P.A. Shackel, and T. Gates. 2018. “Thinking Through ‘Community’ In Archaeological Practice.” Practicing Anthropology 40 (1): 53–57. https://doi.org/10.17730/0888-4552.40.1.53.
Degrees
PhD, Anthropology, Stanford University (2023)
MA, Anthropology, San Francisco State University (2013)
MA (Hons), Archaeology and Social Anthropology, University of Edinburgh (2011)
