Team | People of the North:<br>Ainu Collections at UCLA

A white woman with reddish blonde hair smiling. She is sitting in a Japanese tea house.

Paula R. Curtis

Dr. Paula R. Curtis is a historian of medieval Japan. She is Operations Leader of Japan Past & Present and an Academic Administrator with the Department of Asian Languages & Cultures at UCLA. Her research focuses on metal caster organizations from the twelfth to sixteenth centuries and their relationships with elite institutions. Dr. Curtis also engages in a variety of online projects that compile digital resources and data related to East Asian Studies.

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Ziyi Kong

Ziyi Kong is an undergraduate at UCLA majoring in Asian Languages and Linguistics. She will earn her B.A. in 2027. Her interests are in East Asian Studies, Linguistics, and Asian Humanities, with a focus on the languages, cultures, and belief systems in East Asia. She seeks to deepen her understanding of how Asian languages reflect and shape cultural, historical, and social experiences.

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Shengxi Piao

Shengxi Piao is an undergraduate at UCLA and will earn his B.A. in Fall 2027. He is majoring in Japanese and considering a minor in Public Affairs. His interests include Japanese language, culture, history, and East Asia Studies. Through his studies, he hopes to improve his Japanese language proficiency, and also build a deeper understanding of Japanese history.

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Ivan Provencio

Ivan Provencio is an undergraduate at UCLA and will earn his B.A. in 2027. He is majoring in Anthropology and minoring in Asian Humanities. His interests are in visual anthropology, archaeology and ethnography. He would like to focus his research and field work in East Asian cultures.

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Haley Youngs

Haley Youngs will earn her B.A from UCLA in 2026, majoring in Geography and Environmental Studies with a minor in Food Studies and Asian Humanities. She became interested in studying aspects of Japan’s historical interactions with other regions after studying abroad in Tokyo at the International Christian University and taking coursework on the environmental history of Japan and the impact of colonization on Hokkaido's native flora, fauna, and population.