About:

Alexander Murphy studies modern Japan with a focus on the relationship between sound, language, and the body across literature, media, and performance. In these settings, he is attentive to how aurality enlivens subject formation and social life in transmedial and border-crossing practice, and how the study of voice and sound can be brought to bear on matters of race, gender, and mobility. His current book project explores the cultural politics of the voice in interwar Japan at the intersection of music, poetry, and public speech. Prior to joining UCSB, he taught at Kenyon College and Clark University and was a 2024-25 postdoctoral fellow at the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University.

Selected Articles:

“Echo-locations: Karaoke Performance and Oceanic Voice.” In The Routledge Companion to Voice and Identity, eds. Naome Andre, Freya Jarman, and Amy Skjerseth. Routledge, forthcoming 2025.

“Rhythms in Migration: Whispering Sidewalks and Japan’s Jazz Age Cinema.” In The Advent of Sound in Japanese Cinema: A Handbook, ed. Sean O’Reilly. MHM Japan Documents, 2025.

“Tokyo by way of Tulare County: Jazz Performance in the Transwar Pacific.” In Global Asias: Tactics and Theories, eds. Tina Chen and Charlotte Eubanks. University of Hawai’i Press, 2025.

“The Voice of a Stranger: Rumor, Radio, and the Aurality of Difference in Interwar Japan.” The Journal of Japanese Studies 50.1 (2024): 65-98.

“Transpacific Im/Mobilities: Two Movements in Nisei Musical Practice.” American Music 41.1 (2023): 26-41.

Courses Taught:

JAPAN 144: Advanced Japanese Readings I

JAPAN 211: Bibliography and Research Methodology