I am a historian and peace studies scholar specializing in the study of memory and heritage related to wars, conflicts, and disasters. My work explores how societies remember and memorialize violent pasts, with a particular focus on the Philippines and Southeast Asia.
Currently, I am an Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Hiroshima University. My research interests include international history and politics, memory studies, heritage studies, and media studies. I focus on topics such as the memorialization of conflict, peace process mediation, historiography, history education, and the intersection of heritage, peace, and sustainability. My methodological approach often involves qualitative data analysis and the visual analysis of material objects, archival sources, and digital media.
I earned my Ph.D. from Hiroshima University and my M.A. and B.A. in History from the University of the Philippines Diliman. My work has been published in journals such as Memory Studies, the International Journal of Heritage Studies, and The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. I am the author of War Memorialization and Nation-Building in Twentieth-Century Southeast Asia (Routledge, 2025) and have co-edited volumes including Navigating Peace and Sustainability in an Increasingly Complex World (Springer, 2024).
Outside academia, I co-host PODKAS, a podcast on Philippine history, politics, and society, which I produce with my friends. Find out more about the show here: www.podkas.org.
JOHN LEE CANDELARIA 