I came to The Chinese University of Hong Kong after an appointment as a fellow in the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at the University of Hong Kong. I place my research in a holistic vein of ethnography, intertwining theoretical analysis with depictions of life in Japan. Thematically, I focus on the domains of aging, health, and the cultural effects of demographic change, exploring how Japan’s older residents adjust to new conditions. If societal forces push certain segments of aging individuals toward isolation, how do they seek health and social fulfillment? What constitutes a meaningful existence in life, often in the absence of kin? Where does suffering appear and how is it addressed? Presently, I am working on an ethnographic monograph that investigates how aging individuals use and adapt medical cooperatives to pursue health, friendship, and politics. Rather than a group at risk, I show that older people in Japan create their own forms of aging and have substantive roles in society that affect all demographic groups.

Research interests

Ethnography; aging; kinship; demographic change; loneliness; cooperative organizations; medical anthropology; political ecology; Japan; Hong Kong; East Asia

Geographical areas of research

Japan

Courses

ANTH 1310            Marriage, Family, and Kinship

ANTH 2402/5402 Topics in Ethnography: The Anthropology of Japan

ANTH 5015           Anthropology: A Postgraduate Introduction

Selected Publications

2023                “Songs of Solitude” In “Flash Ethnography: Dusk” Aaron Hames and Derek Pardue, eds., American Ethnologist website. https://americanethnologist.org/online-content/collections/dusk-collection/songs-of-solitude/

2022                “Iryōjinruigaku kara mita iryō to machizukuri [Medical Anthropological Perspectives on Care and Community Building].” Hoken no Kagaku 64 (3): 176-180.

2021                “The Energetic Brain Club in Life and Death.” Anthropology and Humanism 46 (1): 171–86.

2020                “Ageing and the Case of Democratic Medicine in Japan.” Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology 35 (1): 1-33.