Our People

Dr Laurence Mann

Lecturer in Japanese, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

Laurence Mann holds a dual affiliation as Lecturer in Japanese at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford and Senior Lecturer in Japanese and Korean at Oxford Brookes University, where he also heads the whole university’s co-curricular programme BrookesEDGE.   

Laurence studied Japanese, alongside Classical Chinese and Korean, at the Universities of Oxford and Kyoto. His current research interests span a broad range of topics in Japanese and Korean language, with recent publications in language education, pop songs, poetry and multimodality. He also collaborates with researchers in experimental linguistics to investigate the cognitive underpinnings of poetic and musical appreciation in a variety of languages, including Japanese, Korean, Welsh, English and Mongolian.  

Before returning to teach at Oxford in 2017, he worked in the state sector full-time, as a local government music teacher and orchestral director and has continued this aspect of his career in Oxford as tutor at Kairali Music Academy, a community-based music centre in East Oxford.  

As well as qualifications in music and Asian languages, Laurence holds a postgraduate diploma in teaching and is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society and a Senior Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy. A passionate supporter of university outreach, he has contributed over the years to a panoply of access programmes at the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes, including “Choosing Oxford” Student Conferences, BAME Humanities Study Days, Opportunity Oxford and Brookes’ Children in Care Summer School. Students at both institutions have nominated his teaching for Student Union Teaching Awards in 2018, 2023 and 2024. 

Laurence is a Faculty Harassment Officer for Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and also sits on the Graduate Studies committee for the same Faculty.