In May 2023, Ph. D. Student Mia Kivel traveled to Japan to conduct research in support of her upcoming MA Thesis and eventual dissertation. Mia's research focuses on the modern and contemporary art of the Ainu, one of Japan's Indigenous peoples whose homelands include Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands. After spending a few days in Tokyo, Mia Traveled to Hokkaido to visit centers of the 21st-century Ainu cultural production, Including Asahikawa, Shizunai, and the recently opened Upopoy National Ainu Museum and Park.

A highlight of the trip was her visit to the Lake Akan Ainu Kotan, a "tourist village," that is home to many of the most prolific contemporary Ainu artists and hosts daily performances of traditional Ainu music and dance. While there, Mia had the opportunity to briefly meet woodcarver Fujito Kohei, whose innovative work has been featured at London's Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation and the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

Mia's Trip was generously supported with startup funding from the Ohio State University History of Art Department and the Graduate Research Small Grants Program.