Kristin Surak

Terasaki Center For Japanese Studies

Established in 1991, the UCLA Terasaki Center has been a platform for research on Japan. Our distinguished faculty, students, postdoctoral fellows, visiting scholars, and the board of advisors have been contributing to the field of Japanese studies for over 20 years.

Faculty Board of Advisors Chair in US-Japan Relations Postdoctoral Fellows Alumni

Students Visitors Staff Supporters Dr. Paul I. Terasaki

The Terasaki Center sponsors a vast array of events throughout the year. With its colloquium series, the Center brings academics from diverse fields to UCLA each year. Special workshops and annual conferences bring leading scholars to discuss topics relating to Japan.

Center News Annual Newsletter

Center Events Community Events Past Events

The Center is proud to support our faculty, current and prospective students, and the local community through a variety of grants and fellowships.

Internal Funding
Learn more and apply for Center funding here.

External Funding
Funding sources in this section are not administered by the Center.

Center programs were established with strong support from the local community to promote research and instruction in Japanese studies, with a recent focus on the profound transformations unfolding in contemporary Japanese society.

UCLA Japanese Studies
Programs by Faculty and Students

Global Japan Initiative
Understanding Japan/Japanese culture within a global context.

The Terasaki Center is actively expanding support for faculty and graduate students, building relationships with other universities as well as Japan and Japanese Studies related organizations, and enhancing its role in the community.

Mission & History
Digital Archive

Global Hub
The Center is dedicated to connecting Japanese communities around the world with those engaged in the study of Japan and the Japanese.

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global japan initiative Understanding Japan/Japanese
culture within a global context

Kristin Surak

Associate Professor, SOAS University of London

Sociology PhD, 2009
https://www.soas.ac.uk/staff/staff86524.php

Kristin Surak is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Japanese Politics at SOAS, University of London who specializes in international migration, nationalism, culture, and political sociology. In 2015-16, she will be a member of Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. Her book Making Tea, Making Japan: Cultural Nationalism in Practice appeared with Stanford University Press in 2013, and received the Outstanding Book Award from the American Sociological Association’s Section on Asia. She has published in numerous academic and intellectual journals, including the European Journal of Sociology, International Migration Review, Merkur, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Lettre International, and the New Left Review, and her work has been translated into Japanese, Spanish, Swedish, and German. For her scholarship, she has received awards and fellowships from the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Fulbright-Hays Foundation, Japan Foundation, European University Institute, Frankfurt University, University of California Board of Regents, and the Sainsbury Foundation, among others. Before joining SOAS, she taught at UCLA and at the University of Duisburg-Essen. She comments regularly for the BBC, Deutsche Welle, Al Jazeera, and Radio France International. Currently, her research compares migration regimes and temporary migrant labor programs in East Asia and across the globe.