- Position: Associate Professor
- Degree: Ph.D. in Anthropology, Yale University
- Background:
The University of Tokyo, Institute of Social Science (2012-2014)
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Department of Japanese Studies (2014-2024)
Waseda University, Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies (2024-Present)
Field of Specialization
Cultural Anthropology
Research Theme
Work & Wellbeing; Work & Leisure; Gender & Sexuality; Family & Reproductive Health
Major Works / Publications / Awards
Major Works / Publications
- Gagné Okura, N. (2024) Pursuit of Prengancy: Assisted Reproduction and Women’s Pepro-activity in Japan. In The New Reproductive Order: Changing (In) Fertilities across the Golbe, edited by Sarach Franklin and Marcia Inhorn. New York: New York University Press
- Gagné Okura, N. (2021) Reworking Japan: Changing Men at Work and Play under Neoliberalism. Cornell University Press.
- Gagné Okura, N. (2020) From Employment Security to Managerial Precarity: Japan’s Changing Welfare-Work Nexus and its Impacts on Mid-Career Workers. Pacific Affairs, 93 (2): 379-400.
- Gagné Okura, N. (2019) Neoliberalism at Work: Corporate Reforms, Subjectivity, and Post-Toyotist Affect in Japan. Anthropological Theory, 20 (4): 455-483.
- Gagné Okura, N. (2018) “Correcting Capitalism”: Changing Metrics and Meanings of Work among Japanese Employees. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 48 (1): 67-87.
- Gagné Okura, N. (2016) Feeling like a ‘Man’: Managing Gender, Sexuality, and Corporate Life in After-Hours Tokyo. In Cultural Politics of Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Asia, edited by Tiantian Zheng. University of Hawaii Press.
- Gagné Okura, N. (2014) Romance and Sexuality in Japanese Latin Dance Clubs. Ethnography, 15(4): 446-468.
- Gagné Okura, N. (2011) Eating Local in a U.S. City: Reconstructing “Community” —a Third Place— in a Global Neoliberal Economy. American Ethnologist, 38(2): 281-293.
- Gagné Okura, N. (2010) The Business of Leisure, the Leisure of Business: Rethinking Hegemonic Masculinity through Gendered Service in Tokyo Hostess Clubs. Asian Anthropology, 9: 29-55.
- Gagné Okura, N. (2010) Reexamining the Notion of Negative Face in the Japanese Socio- Linguistic Politeness of Request. Journal of Language and Communication, 30(2): 123-128.
Awards
- Research Excellence Award, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (2023)
Academic Societies / Service to Society
Academic Societies
- American Anthropological Association
- Association for Asian Studies
- European Association of Japanese Studies
Service to Society
- Member, Changing (In) Fertilities Research Network (University of Cambridge)
- Member, Women’s Empowerment through Financial Literacy (WEFL) Programme (Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Research Project
- MA: Society & Culture in the Asia-Pacific
- PhD: Contemporary Japanese Society
Research Theme, Outline of Project Research Seminar, Message to Prospects
The MA and PhD seminars use sociological and anthropological approaches (theories and methods) to explore the dynamics of social life among peoples in Japan and the contemporary Asia-Pacific region. As part of the seminars, students will engage in qualitative research that includes participant-observation and/or in-depth interviewing in order to explore a narrowly defined question of their choice concerning some sociocultural phenomenon in Japan and/or the Asia-Pacific region. In particular, the seminars are geared toward students with a social science background who wish to study qualitative aspects of work issues, gender issues, or family issues in Japan and Asia-Pacific societies. In addition, since the area of most of my research has been Japan (and China, Hong Kong and the US), students wishing to study those societies are particularly welcome.
Course List
Faculty Spotlights
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