Claire Demenez

Claire Demenez is a postgraduate researcher in the school of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing. Her PhD research focusses on translating quake texts written at different positional distances from the epicentre of modern Japanese literature and its institutions during the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. Her research is supported by a Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation Studentship.

She completed her Msc by Research in Japanese Studies at the University of Edinburgh (2025) which was supported by a Daiwa Scholarship in Japanese Studies. Her research connected the 1927 literary dispute between Akutagawa Ryunosuke and Tanizaki Junichiro and their magazine writings about the Great Kanto Earthquake. As part of this project, she completed a research internship at Waseda University (2024) and her dissertation was awarded second place in the BAJS Ivan Morris Memorial Prize.

Prior to this, Claire completed her MA(Hons) in Japanese Studies, also at the University of Edinburgh (2019), and worked at the Consulate General of Japan in Edinburgh for several years.

Her current research interests include: modern Japanese literature, disaster literature, modern Japanese history (particularly the 1920s & Taisho-early Showa era), and literary translation.