Asia-Pacific Regional Group
The Second World War Research Group, Asia-Pacific is an organisation that brings together those scholars across the Asia-Pacific region who are researching aspects of the broad period of the Second World War.
The regional group aims to promote innovative research, serve to connect scholars, as well as provide a central point of contact for research on the Second World War.
As part of its mission, the Second World War Research Group, Asia-Pacific will act as a regional forum for:
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Bringing together new perspectives on the conflict;
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Publicising recent and current research into the conflict and its global impact;
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Encouraging collaboration in research across the scholarly community and academic disciplines;
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Providing an organisational hub for conferences, seminars and other events relating to the conflict; and
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Supporting members by serving as the first point of contact for key stakeholders and audiences interested in research and expertise on the Second World War.
Committee
Director
Karl is a Senior Historian in the Military History Section of the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, Australia. He has published widely on Australia’s involvement in the Second World War, and the history of Australia’s Special Operations Forces.
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Director
Nicole Townsend is a lecturer in history at UNSW Canberra. Her current research examines Australia’s involvement in the Mediterranean and Middle East theatre during the Second World War, and her previous research has examined cultural, social and operational aspects of Australian involvement in the Second World War.
Director
Jennifer Yip is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the National University of Singapore. She is a historian of modern war and strategy, with a focus on Republican China. She is especially interested in the socio-economic effects of total war mobilization, both in China and around the world, in the interwar and World War II years. Her first monograph, Grains of Conflict: The Struggle for Food in China’s Total War, 1937–1945, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2025. Prior to joining the Department, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Clements Center for National Security and an affiliate of the Asia Policy Program at the University of Texas at Austin.
Director
Peter is currently Professor and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education) at the University of Western Australia. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Perth USAsia Centre. His research interests include the Pacific War, Australian military history, military adaptation and innovation, amphibious warfare, command and coalition warfare.
Director
David Littlewood is a Senior Lecturer in History at Massey University in New Zealand. His research examines New Zealand society during the two world wars, with a focus on how individuals responded to the application of conscription. His first monograph was Military Service Tribunals and Boards in the Great War: Determining the Fate of Britain’s and New Zealand’s Conscripts (Routledge, 2017), and he is currently working on a follow-up that examines New Zealanders’ experiences of conscription during the Second World War.
Director
Michelle Walker is an early-career researcher based at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her research focuses around war and society, particularly in Scotland, and veteran wellbeing. Her current project, 'War in the Workplace', examines dissent and subversiveness in UK workplaces during the Second World War, and is funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation.