Tessa Morris-Suzuki


Tessa Morris-Suzuki, born as Tessa Morris, is a historian of modern Japan and North Korea. She is Professor in the School of Culture, History and Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, the Australian National University. She is also a coordinator of an open access journal AsiaRights, and has served as president of the Asian Studies Association of Australia. She was the winner of the Academic Prize of the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize in 2013.

Early life

Born in England, she obtained her B.A. in Russian history in University of Bristol, M.A. and Ph.D. in Economic history of Japan in University of Bath. She lived and worked in Japan before emigrating to Australia in 1981. Tessa Morris married to the Japanese writer Hiroshi Suzuki and incorporated her husband's surname into her double surname. In turn, her husband incorporated her surname into his pen name as Morisu Hiroshi.

Academic career

Her research focuses on Japan's frontiers and minority communities and on questions of historical memory in East Asia. She is the author of Exodus to North Korea: Shadows from Japan's Cold War. Her two most recent books are To the Diamond Mountains: A Hundred Year Journey Through China and Korea, and Borderline Japan: Foreigners and Frontier Controls in the Post-war Era.

Awards and honors

In 2012, she was awarded an Australian Laureate Fellowship.

Publications