Venue: Learning Studio, FUKUTAKE Hall, Hongo Campus, The University of Tokyo
Speakers
Mónica G. Moreno Figueroa
Professor of Sociology
Department of Sociology
University of Cambridge
Mónica G. Moreno Figueroa is a Black-mestiza, Mexican-British Professor of Sociology at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow in Social Sciences at Downing College. Her research explores the intersectional lived experiences of ‘race’ and racism in Mexico and Latin America, antiracism and academic-based impact, feminist theory, and intersectionality.
Mónica is currently leading the development of the Global Racisms Institute for Social Transformation (GRIST) at Cambridge, which aims to address global racisms and intersectional social inequalities through actionable research, dialogue, and experimentation.
Mónica’s recent work includes editing Against Racism: Organizing for Social Change in Latin America (2022) and her most recent project, funded by the British Academy The Structure Within: Internalised Oppression, Defensiveness, and Resentment. She also co-leads the Collective for the Elimination of Racism in Mexico (COPERA), a non-profit organization where activists and scholars work collaboratively to eliminate racism in Mexico.
Akiko Shimizu
Professor
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
the University of Tokyo
SHIMIZU Akiko is a professor of feminist and queer theories at the Department of Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo. As the head of Diversity and Inclusion Division at the Komaba Organization for Educational Excellence (KOMEX), she is in charge of the DE&I related education for the junior division (first- and second-year undergraduate), as well as supervising graduate students. With her graduate students, she has hosted a public lecture series on queer studies (“autumn queer lectures at Komaba campus” as the regular attendants call them) for nearly fifteen years now. Her research interests are: feminist theories of bodies and self-representation; post-colonial feminism and cultural interpretation; anti-gender movements in Japan; proximity, fear and the possibility of coalition. Her most recent publications include: “Towards intersectionality without security: a note towards coexistence”(JPN), TSUCHIYA kazuyo and ISAKA Rie eds. Intersectionality: Interlocking power relations in the contemporary world, UTP, 2024; “The thorn going stealth: For the queer politics of plurality that may not appear”(JPN), Shisou, 2020; ‘“Imported” Feminism and “Indigenous” Queerness: From Backlash to Transphobic Feminism in Transnational Japanese Context’ (Eng), Journal of Gender Studies, 2020; “From Backlash to Online Trans-exclusionism: Response to the lecture by Prof. Peto”(Eng), Gender and Sexuality: Journal of the Center for Gender Studies, 2019. She is a translator (into Japanese) of Judith Butler’s Frames of War and Who’s Afraid of Gender? She has also been invited to give a public lecture, including China (Nanjing University), Germany (Heinrich Heine University, Dusseldorf), Australia (The University of Melbourne), and U.S. (U.C. Berkeley). She loves spending time with her two dogs, a very good-looking, tidy and socially awkward gay toy poodle, and a happy-go-lucky, messy and sloppy Havanese puppy (whose SOGI is still unknown).
Sachi Takaya
Associate Professor
Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology
University of Tokyo
Sachi Takaya is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, University of Tokyo. Her research interests include irregular migration and bordering, migration and gender, membership and belonging of migrants, and migration policy in the context of East Asia. She has published a monograph on undocumented migrants and border politics in postwar Japan and has edited several books on migration policy and migration control (in Japanese). Her recent publications include “Policy Change and National Identification: The discursive institutionalism of the migrant admission policy shift in Japan” in Social Science Japan Journal (forthcoming), and “Intersectional belongings: Experiences of Filipino mothers in Japan” Gendai Shiso (2022) (in Japanese). She has been involved in migrant rights movements and grassroots activities to promote the rights and dignity of migrants and refugees for the past twenty years.
Kazuyoshi Kawasaka
Independent researcher
Dr Kazuyoshi Kawasaka is an independent researcher and was the principal investigator of the DFG-funded project at the Institute for Modern Japanese studies in Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany (‘Sexual Diversity and Human Rights in 21st Century Japan: LGBTIQ Activisms and Resistance from a Transnational Perspective’]), from 2020 to 2024. His research interests include nationalism and queer politics in Japan, globalization of LGBTIQ politics, and transnational anti-gender/LGBTIQ movements. He is a co-editor of Beyond Diversity: Queer Politics, Activism, and Representation in Contemporary Japan (Düsseldorf University Press, 2024).
Tomomi Yamaguchi
Professor
College of International Relations
Ritsumeikan University
Tomomi Yamaguchi is a Professor at the College of International Relations at Ritsumeikan University, and Associate Professor Emerita of Anthropology at Montana State University. She recently joined Ritsumeikan, after living in the United States for nearly 30 years. At MSU, she contributed to advancing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access (DEIA) as a member of committees in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and the College of Letters and Science. She also directed Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies program. As a cultural anthropologist, her research focuses on feminism, nationalism, and social movements in contemporary Japan. Her work includes ethnographic studies of grassroots right-wing movements, right-wing backlash against feminism, xenophobic ultranationalist movements, and the ongoing debate on wartime “comfort women.” Her recent publications include “Ramseyer, the Japanese Right Wing, and the ‘History Wars’” in Pyong Gap Min (ed.), Countering History Denialism: The Assault on Truth about “Comfort Women,” (Singapore: World Scientific, 2025), “Abe and the Unification Church: Opposing Gender Equality and LGBTQ+ Rights.” (The Asia-Pacific Journal, Japan Focus, Vol. 20, Issue 16., September 15, 2022), and (co-authored with Saitō Masami in Japanese), Shūkyō uha to feminizumu (Religious Right-wing and Feminism), (Tokyo: Seikyūsha, 2023). She is a member of the editorial board of the Asia-Pacific Journal, Japan Focus, a regional editor of Critical Asian Studies, and a board member of the Asia-Japan Women’s Resource Center based in Tokyo.