Dr Laurence Mann
FHEA, PGCertTLHE, DipABRSM
Senior Lecturer in Japanese Language
School of English and Modern Languages
Role
Laurence studied Japanese at the University of Oxford, where he was awarded a DPhil (No Corrections) in 2017, for research on a set of Shinto liturgies called the Engishiki Norito. His research interests centre on the relationships between form and meaning in texts, particularly poetry and songs. He teaches a range of undergraduate modules in Japanese language and culture at Brookes (see below for a current list). Aside from this, he also retains an affiliation at the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, where he has taught since 2017.
Teaching and supervision
Courses
Modules taught
- Japanese 1A
- Japanese 4B
- Language Studies in Japan
- Advanced Japanese Communication
- Japanese 4A
Research
Laurence's research interests began in early Japanese liturgical and poetic texts from the Old Japanese (8th Century, Nara) Period. Since then, his interests have developed to span a broader range across both time and space, but retain a focus on the relationships between form and meaning, particularly in highly oral genres. His most recent publications and projects scope across a wide variety of topics in language, including language education, multimodality and poetic rhetoric in Japonic languages. He also collaborates with researchers in experimental linguistics to investigate the cognitive underpinnings of poetic appreciation (and other topics) in a variety of languages, including Japanese, Korean, Welsh, English and Mongolian.
Research group membership
- Associate Faculty Member, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford.
- Founding Member, ERP Studies for East Asian Languages (with Seoul National, National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics, University of Inner Mongolia and others).
Research grants and awards
- John Fell OUP Research Fund, March 2019
- Creative Multilingualism Funded Research Project, June 2018
- British Association of Japanese Studies John Crump Studentship, 2016
- Wolfson Postgraduate Scholarship in the Humanities 2012-15
- Young Bin Min-KF Fund Grant, 2014
- University of Oxford Gibbs Prize 2008
Research projects
- Poetry, song, heritage: the Poetic Mind (PI) 2019-2020, John Fell Fund
- Can the music of poetry transcend cultural and linguistic barriers? A cognitive neuroscience investigation (Co-I) 2018-2019, Creative Multilingualism
Centres and institutes
Groups
Projects
- Poetry, song, heritage: the Poetic Mind
Publications
Professional information
Memberships of professional bodies
- Fellow of the Higher Education Acade
Further details
Other experience
- Tanaka JRF in Japanese, Pembroke College, University of Oxford (2018-2021)
- College Lecturer in Japanese, Hertford College, University of Oxford (2018)
- Departmental Lecturer in Japanese, University of Oxford (2017-18)
- Nominated for Student Union Teaching Awards (2018)
Exam coordinator
- Local Education Authority Music Teacher, City and County of Swansea (2016-17)
Principal teaching responsibilities: Performance, ensemble musicianship
- Japanese Language Teacher, various colleges, University of Oxford (2012-16)
- Academic Translator and Conference Interpreter (2012-present)