Profile
- Name
- Ayaka Onohara（小野原 彩香）
- Affiliation
- Associate Professor, School of International Studies, Hokusei Gakuen University (Apr 2026–); scheduled to join the new Faculty of Information Science in AY2027
- Degree
- Ph.D. in Culture and Information Science, Doshisha University, March 2014
- Research
- From the perspective of evolutionary anthropology and cultural evolution, I study Spatial Cultural Dynamics — the dynamics of cultural traits in structured space.
- Research areas
- Linguistics, language evolution, cultural evolution, speech & pitch accent, GIS, quantitative/statistical modeling
- IDs & links
- researchmap / ORCID 0009-0004-3082-3267 / Google Scholar / GitHub
Appointments
- Apr 2026–presentAssociate Professor, School of International Studies, Hokusei Gakuen University
- Apr 2022–Mar 2026Assistant Professor, Center for Social Information Education and Research, Rikkyo University
- Apr 2018–Mar 2022JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow (PD), Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo
- May 2019–Mar 2021Research interruption (childbirth and childcare, 2nd child)
- Oct 2016–Mar 2018JSPS Research Fellow (RPD), Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo
- Apr 2015–Sep 2016JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow (PD), Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo
- Oct 2013–Mar 2015Research interruption (childbirth and childcare, 1st child)
- Apr 2013–Mar 2014JSPS DC2 Fellow, Graduate School of Culture and Information Science, Doshisha University
Education
- Mar 2014Ph.D. in Culture and Information Science, Graduate School of Culture and Information Science, Doshisha University
Awards
- Oct 2023Best Poster Award — "Estimating vineyard suitability using machine learning"GIS Association of Japan | N. Iwasaki, T. Tanaka, A. Onohara, K. Hayashi, M. Katori, T. Oguchi
- Dec 2016Young Researcher Award — "Role of population size in lexical/grammatical gain and loss"Japan Human Behavior and Evolution Society | A. Onohara, Y. Ihara
- Oct 2016Best Poster Award — "Environmental and social factors associated with language loss and gain"GIS Association of Japan | A. Onohara
Research Grants
- 2024–2027Elucidating the emotional relationship between speech and place using an evolutionary approachPI | KAKENHI 24K16071
- 2022–2024Elucidating the function and role of accent using an evolutionary approachPI
- 2018–2023Mathematical study of language change processes considering population structure
- 2016–2019Quantitative evaluation of factors and genealogy of language change
Selected Papers
- 2026GAN-Based Modeling of Emotional Dynamics in Cultural Evolution and Niche Construction: An Integrated Empirical Approach
- 2024Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of pitch-accent systems based on accentual class merger: a new method applied to Japanese dialects
- 2022Inferring the temporal and spatial evolution of accent systems in Japanese dialects: a phylogeographic approach
- 2022Client-Side Web Mapping System for Vineyard Suitability Assessment
- 2016言語の消失と獲得に関連する環境・社会的要因 [Environmental and social factors related to language loss and gain]
Full citations, DOIs and links to data and code are on Publications.
Teaching (AY2026)
- Hokusei Gakuen Univ.
- Introduction to Information, Statistics I & II, Introduction to Social Research, Applied Information Literacy
- Hokkaido Univ.
- Behaviormetrics
Service
- 7 Jul 2026Speaker, Hokusei Gakuen University Public Lecture Series (Lecture 1): 「AIは「こころ」のパートナーになれるか？ ～進化人類学で読み解く、人間と機械の新しい絆～」. Slides (Speaker Deck) ／ DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21260420 ／ Event information
- Mar 2026Local Organizing Committee, FOSS4G 2026 Hiroshima — drafted and published the Childcare & Family-Friendly Policy
Contact
a-onohara@hokusei.ac.jp For collaboration, lectures or media inquiries, see Contact.