Japan Foundation/UCSB Graduate Division Research Accelerator Awards 2020

We are delighted to announce that three of the four 2020 Japan Foundation/UCSB Graduate Division Research Accelerator Awards were given to EALCS graduate students: Elizabeth Kataoka (EALCS) will continue her dissertation project on “Assimilating Identity? Education, Epistemologies, and Ainu Consciousness in the Twentieth Century” that was disrupted by the COVID-19 crisis. Yiming Ma (EALCS) will conduct preparatory archival research for his dissertation project on underground trans-war networks of Japanese and Chinese leftwing intellectuals and artists in Tokyo and Shanghai. Kaitlyn Ugoretz (EALCS) will carry out ethnographic research on a new part of her dissertation project, “Shinto in the Time of Coronavirus: Japanese Religion Online During a Global Pandemic.” 

A fourth award went to Michael Ioannides (Anthropology) who will attend the advanced, immersive Japanese language course offered by the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Study (IUC) in Yokoyama in order to prepare himself for his dissertation research on Indigenous-led sustainable development in Hokkaido.

We warmly congratulate the awardees,

Naoki Yamamoto (selection committee)

Jessica Nakamura (selection committee and Co-PI)

Sabine Frühstück (selection committee and PI)