since 2025
Walter Benjamin Postdoctoral Research Fellow funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), Global South Studies Center, University of Cologne

2024 – 2025
Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Japanese Societies, Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, University of Oxford

2024 – 2024
Visiting Researcher, University of Oslo 

2023
Dissertation successfully defended, title: “Searching for Zan: Human-Dugong Relations and Environmental Activism in Okinawa”

2019 – 2024
PhD candidate at the ERC-funded research project “Whales of Power: Aquatic Mammals, Devotional Practices, and Environmental Change in Maritime East Asia”, Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, University of Oslo 

2014 – 2015
Tokyo University, year abroad, including fieldwork 

2013 – 2016
Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, graduate program
 

• Palz, Marius. Past and Present Powers of the Okinawan Dugong. In Aike P. Rots, Florence Durney, and Lindsey DeWitt Prat (Eds.), Water Powers: Divine Animals of Riverine and Maritime Asia. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, forthcoming.
• Ortega-Argueta, Alejandro, Ellen M. Hines, Jorge Calvimontes and Marius Palz. Using Interviews in Sirenian Research (updated version). In Ellen M. Hines, John E. Reynolds, Lemnuel V. Aragones, Antonio A. Mignucci-Giannoni, and Miriam Marmontel (Eds.), Sirenian Conservation: Issues and Strategies in Developing Countries. London: Pelagic Publishing, forthcoming.
• Palz, Marius. Negotiating Extirpation – On the Political Implications of Declaring Dugongs Extinct in Okinawan Waters. Cambridge Prisms: Extinction. Cambridge University Press, 2024.
• Palz, Marius. Okinawan Coral Politics, Henoko Base Construction and a Japanese Political Strategy of Ignorance. The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, 19(24), 2021.
• Palz, Marius. A Sea Cow Goes to Court. Extinction and Animal Agency in a Struggle Against Militarism. Relations: Beyond Anthropocentrism, 8(1-2), pp.77–95, 2020.

• Human-Environment Relations
• Species Extinction
• Anthropocene
• Indigenous Studies (Ainu and Okinawa)
• Militarism 

Vanishing Wings of Japan's Periphery - A More-Than-Human Ethnography of Hokkaido and Okinawa, Focussing on Two Rare Birdspecies (Blakiston’s fish owl and Okinawa rail)

This project analyses the ecological and cultural impact of biodiversity decline and how local people’s worldviews shape conservation measures by looking at two case studies that focus on rare bird species in Japan’s periphery. In the country’s far north (Hokkaido) and south (Okinawa) anthropogenic environmental change has been occurring on a massive scale since the end of the 19th century, affecting both human and non-human populations in these regions. Landscape development for example includes road and dam construction, deforestation and reforestation as monocultures, as well as river regulations, while the introduction of alien species and overhunting also significantly altered local ecosystems. Two iconic bird species were especially affected by these changes and today they stand on the brink of extinction: the Blakiston’s fish owl in Hokkaido and the Okinawa rail on Okinawa Island. The two species turned out to be especially vulnerable to the afore mentioned changes, as their survival depends on specific features of the landscape they inhabit. Furthermore, both species hold special relations with humans: the Blakiston’s fish owl is venerated as a deity by the Ainu people that are recognised as the Indigenous people of northern Japan and the Okinawa rail is a symbol of Okinawa Island’s endemic biodiversity. They both count as “flagship species” in conservation and have become a significant pull factor for tourism with observatories and research centres being erected in several places. Furthermore, they both are registered as Natural Monuments by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs and are protected by several legislations, yet a stabilisation of their numbers is uncertain. Looking closer at these animals and their path towards potential extinction shows that landscape alteration, biodiversity decline, and people’s changing perception of the environment must be researched as entangled with each other and not as isolated phenomena. My project goes beyond the state of the art, as it conceptualises the threat of species extinction not just from an ecological perspective but also explores the cultural dimensions of extinction and the landscape histories that have led to the transformation of human-wildlife relations.

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