Merle Kartscher

Merle Kartscher is a PhD candidate at the History Department, where she focuses on modern East Asian history and gender history. Her research interests encompass the transnational history of the Japanese Empire, the cultural and social dimensions of Japanese imperialism and colonialism in East Asia, and women’s intellectual and social projects within this context. In her dissertation, Merle examines the participation of women in the Japanese Empire through their membership in women’s organisations in colonised Taiwan and Korea, 1895-1945. The study uses imperial and pan-Asian feminisms as an analytical lens to move beyond the binary representation of women as passive actors or fervent colonists and highlight the complex gendered needs and aspirations they pursued within the colonial system. Examining the interplay of imperial ideology, (quasi-)feminist concerns, and personal ambition, this research situates women’s experiences of Japanese imperialism within global scholarship on the intersections of gender and empire.