Aya Ezawa
University Lecturer Modern Japanese Studies
- Name
- Dr. A.E. Ezawa
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 2548
- a.ezawa@hum.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0002-9761-7554
Aya Ezawa is a sociologist and University Lecturer in Modern Japan studies. Her research examines social inequality and differentiation based on oral history interviews. In her research, she has examined the gendered character of social class and social mobility in the context of the life stories of single mothers in Japan. Her research on Japanese-Indo-Europeans explores examines how race and gender shape the discourse and personal lives of children born during the Japanese Occupation of the Dutch East Indies. Between 2019 and 2024 Aya served as the Diversity Officer of Leiden University. In this capacity, she developed policy on a range of issues, including gender neutral address, a training program and guide for inclusive hiring, an inclusive teaching guide, the improvement of accessibility and information about inclusive facilities of buildings, data and monitoring of D&I, supported community building of students and staff networks, and raised awareness within the university community on a broad range of issues in the area of diversity, equity and inclusion. She also served as the chair of the National Network of Diversity Officers (LanDO).
More information about Aya Ezawa
News
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‘Partying is fine but we still need to protest’ -
Exhibition encourages us to reflect on the history of slavery -
Farewell to Diversity Officer Aya Ezawa: Tireless advocate for D&I -
How can we banish racism from education? -
Inclusion on International Women’s Day: pulling together for structural change -
Growing diversity of Dutch population not immediately visible at universities -
D&I Symposium 2024: What have we achieved with a decade of diversity policy? -
Our perspective on history is changing and our museums are changing too -
‘We have to stay alert and keep on feeling the past’ -
Being yourself in the summer sun: Leiden University shines at Canal Pride Leiden -
Racism: a daily reality -
‘We should stop celebrating diversity. It should be a given’ -
Three questions about the D&I Symposium 2023 -
University diversity policy is alive and kicking: ‘We need to acknowledge each other’s experiences’ -
Belittling and threats are part of everyday life for outspoken women -
‘People are equal but not the same’: diversity and inclusion from a legal perspective -
New Year’s reception 2021: a memorable online event -
A constructive discussion about an inclusive Sinterklaas celebration -
An inclusive university as a joint effort
Research
My research explores the lives of individuals based on oral history interviews, to be able to connect individual life trajectories with their social and historical context. More concretely, I have explored the lives of single mothers in Japan, not only to shed light on the socio-economic consequences of pursuing a lifestyle outside of the married mother, and male breadwinner norm, but also to foster a better understanding of the gendered character of social class and social mobility. My most recent research focuses on the relationship between memories of WWII and the experiences and identities of children born across enemy lines during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies.
CV
Education
Ph.D. in Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
M.Sc. in Sociology, London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London, UK
B.A. cum laude in Japanese Studies-Modern Society, Sophia University, Japan
University Lecturer Modern Japanese Studies
- Faculty of Humanities
- Leiden Institute for Area Studies
- SAS Japan
- Ezawa A.E. (2018), Nihon ni okeru shinguru maza- fukushikaikaku, hinkon (Single mothers in Japan, welfare reform and poverty), The journal of Ohara Institute for Social Research 711(1): 19-32.
- Ezawa A.E. (2016), Single Mothers in Contemporary Japan: Motherhood, Class, and Reproductive Practice. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
- Ezawa A.E. (2016) Japans oorlogsverleden: verhalen van burgers en militairen. Review of: Yoshiaki Yoshimi & Ethan Mark (2015), Grassroots Fascism: The War Experience of the Japanese People. New York: Columbia University Press. Onderzoek uitgelicht 5(1): 11-15.
- Ezawa A.E. (2016), The enemy within: Japanese children born of war and discourses of WWII [ISA forum, University of Vienna, Austria, July 12, 2016]. .
- Ezawa A.E. (2016), Japanese Children Born of War and the History and Memory of WWII [ASCJ conference, International Christian University, Japan, July 2, 2016]. .
- Ezawa A. (2015), Senso to kokusai kekkon: Nichiran kappuru wo jirei ni [International marriage in times of war: the case of Dutch-Japanese couples]. In: Hara N., Iwata M. & Miyajima T. (Eds.), Gendai shakai to kodomo no hinkon. Tokyo: Otsuki Shoten. 261-282.
- Ezawa A.E. (2015), The Guilt Feeling That You Exist: War, Racism, and Indisch-Japanese identity formation. In: Kowner R. & Demel W. (Eds.), Race and Racism in Modern East Asia: Interactions, Nationalism, Gender, and Lineage. Leiden: Brill. 481-502.
- Ezawa A.E. (2015), Izrinjeni spomini; japonski otroci, rojeni med drugo svetovno vojno, ter zgodovina in spomin na japonsko okupacijo Nizozemske vzhodne Indije, Borec. Revija za zgodovino, antropologijo in književnost (724-26): 117-128.
- Ezawa A.E. (2015), At Home in the ‘Enemy’s’ fatherland: Narratives of Home-coming of Indisch-Japanese Children Born of War [International Sociological Association, RC 38 “Biographies of Belonging” Conference, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands, March 10-11, 2015]. .
- Ezawa A.E. (2015), The Pacific War in the History and Memory of WWII in Europe: Indisch-Japanese Children Born of War in the Postwar Netherlands ['The Children of World War Two' Conference, Ljubliana, Slovenia 9-10 April 2015]. .
- Ezawa A.E. (2014), Dutch-Japanese encounters: Gendered Experiences of the Japanese Occupation of the Netherlands East Indies [XVIII International Sociological Association World Congress of Sociology, Yokohama, Japan, 13-19 July 2014]. .
- Ezawa A.E. (2013), Review of: Richard R & Alexy A., Home and Family in Japan: Continuity and Transformation no. 3. Pacific Affairs 86.
- Ezawa A.E. (2013), ’International Marriage’ in Times of War: Indisch-Japanese Children and the Japanese Occupation of the Netherlands East Indies [Children and War: Past and Present Conference, Salzburg, Austria, 10-12 July 2013]. .
- Ezawa A.E. (2012), アメリカの福祉改革―福祉退出者研究の教訓と洞察 [Welfare Reform in the US: Lessons and Insights from Welfare Leaver Studies]. In: Hara N. (Ed.), 福祉国家と家族 [The welfare state and the family]. Tokyo: Hosei University Press.
- Ezawa A.E. (2012), 子どもと戦争：日系オランダ人の口述史, The journal of Ohara Institute for Social Research (648): 32-52.
- Ezawa A.E. (2012), ‘The Guilty Feeling that You Exist’: Indisch-Japanese and the Memory of the Japanese Occupation of the Netherlands East Indies [Conference on ‘Constructions of Race and Racism in East Asia’, The University of the Armed Forces, Munich, Germany, 12-15 September, 2012]. .
- Ezawa A.E. (2012), Telling the Unknown Past: Indisch-Japanese and the Memory of WWII [European Social Science History Conference, Glasgow, Scotland, 11-14 April 2012]. .
- Ezawa A.E. (2012), Revisiting the Tohoku Earthquake: Fieldnotes on the Long-term Effects on Women and Children [International Victimology Conference, The Hague, Netherlands, 20-24 May 2012]. .
- Ezawa A.E. (2011), Changing Patterns of Marriage and Motherhood. In: Fujimura-Fanselow K. (Ed.), Transforming Japan: How feminism and diversity are making a difference. New York: The Feminist Press. 105-120.
- Ezawa A.E. (2009), Motherhood and Class: Gender, Class and Reproductive Practices Among Japanese Single Mothers. In: Ishida H. & Slater D. (Eds.), Social Class in Contemporary Japan: Structures, Sorting, and Strategies. London and New York: Routledge.
- Ezawa A.E. (2009) Boekbespreking. Review of: Furukawa K. (2008), Social Welfare in Japan, Principles and Applications no. 4. Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press. Pacific Affairs 81.
- Ezawa A.E. (2009) 養育費政策にみる国家と家族. Review of: 下夷美幸 (2008), 養育費政策にみる国家と家族 no. 86. 東京: 勁草書房. 社会学研究「Shakaigaku kenkyu」 : 143-146.
- Ezawa A.E. (2007), From Welfare to Work: The Conditions of Single Mothers’ ‘Independence', Journal of Political Science and Sociology 7: 81-99.
- Ezawa A.E. (2007), Reconsidering U.S. Welfare Reform: An Analysis of Workfare Policies and their Implications for Japan, Kikan shakai hosho kenkyu (Quarterly of Social Security Research) 42(4): 407-419.
- Ezawa A.E. (2006), How Japanese Single Mothers Work, Japanstudien: Jahrbuch des Deutschen Instituts für Japanstudien 18: 59-83.
- Ezawa A.E. (2005) Boekbespreking. Review of: Fruhstuck S. (2003), Colonizing Sex: Sexology and Social Control in Modern Japan no. 1. Berkeley: University of California Press. Metascience 14.
- Ezawa A.E. (2005) Boekbespreking. Review of: Fuess H. (2004), Divorce in Japan: Family, Gender, and the State, 1600-2000 no. 1. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Pacific Affairs 78.
- Ezawa A.E. (2005) Boekbespreking. Review of: Tsuda T. (2003), Strangers in the Ethnic Homeland: Japanese Brazilian Return Migration in Transnational Perspective no. 5. New York: Columbia University Press. American Journal of Sociology 110.
- Ezawa A.E. (2005), Lone Mothers and Welfare-to-Work Policies in Japan and the United States: Toward an Alternative Perspective, Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare 32(4): 41-63.
- Ezawa A.E. (2004) Boekbespreking. Review of: Hein L. & Selden M. (2003), Islands of Discontent: Okinawan Responses to Japanese and American Power no. 3. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield. Contemporary Sociology 33.
- Ezawa A.E. (2003) Boekbespreking. Review of: Fowler R.E. (1996), San’ya Blues: Laboring Life in Contemporary Tokyo no. 6. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Contemporary Sociology 26.
- Ezawa A.E. (2003) Boekbespreking. Review of: Goodman R. (2000), Children of the Japanese State: The Changing Role of Child Protection Institutions in Contemporary Japan no. 6. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Contemporary Sociology 32.
- Ezawa A.E. (2002), Japan's "New Homeless", Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless 11(4): 279-291.
- Ezawa A.E. (2000) Boekbespreking. Review of: Uno K.S. (1999), Passages to Modernity: Motherhood, Childhood, and Social Reform in Early Twentieth Century Japan no. 2. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Social Science Japan Journal 3.