Congratulations to Rin Ushiyama for being awarded Tanaka Junior Research Fellowship in Japanese Studies.
Sociology graduate student Rin Ushiyama has been offered the Tanaka Junior Research Fellowship in Japanese Studies at Pembroke College, Oxford.
Rin Ushiyama is Japanese but has lived in the UK for the majority of his life so far. He received a BA in Politics, Psychology and Sociology, and an MPhil in Modern Societies and Global Transformations, both from Cambridge, before continuing his studies at the Sociology Department.
Rin's research interests are broadly in the areas of cultural sociology, collective memory studies, sociology of intellectuals, and religion in Japan. His PhD dissertation examines how the Aum Affair has been remembered in Japan. The Aum Affair was a series of crimes committed by the millenarian religious movement Aum Shinrikyō between 1989 and 1995, which culminated in the gassing of the Tokyo metro system in March 1995. Applying and developing the theory of cultural trauma, the project looks at how different actors and institutions have constructed competing ‘trauma narratives’ of the Tokyo attack (and Aum's other crimes) over the past two decades, as well as how the Affair has been commemorated in various forms.
As Tanaka JRF in Japanese, Rin will be expected to conduct original research in his chosen field and to contribute to the development of Japanese studies at Pembroke College.
Congratulations once again to Rin and we wish him every success in his new role!
