Speakers
Description
Living Within Diversity (LiDi) is a special interest group of SIETAR Japan (the Society of Intercultural Education, Training and Research). Members are educators and trainers facilitating awareness of diversity and training people how to manage diversity.
Lisa ROGERS, a founding member of LiDi, will facilitate presentations by four LiDi members. Presenters will introduce their activities supporting non-Japanese residents and migrants in Japan followed by discussions with audience members. Reiko OGAWA will introduce the situation of Afghan evacuees while examining interlocking systems of exclusion based on race, gender, class, religion, and international politics. Dora TAMARI-TUTNJEVIĆ will talk about the changes we see in the rising number of foreigners and employment thereof in Japan, including a small, but increasing number of asylum seekers. As Japan grapples with decreasing population and labor shortage, are there now more possibilities for those "on the edge" to join the mainstream, and how do we harness these opportunities? Finally, Elisabeth WILLIAMS will describe her group’s (TABUNKO) efforts to provide a safe space for multicultural families. TABUNKO is a grass-roots organization which collaborates with kokoka (Kyoto) and KICC (Kobe) with the goal of supporting diverse families in the Kansai area through such activities as multilingual storytelling events, round table discussions, and special guest lectures.
Panelist 3 Bio
Elisabeth WILLIAMS ウィリアムズエリザベスis a co-founder of TABUNKO and a faculty member of the Global Local Studies Department of Kobe Women’s College. While supporting multicultural families in Japan, she has researched perceptions of masculinity of Japanese men studying abroad and academic harassment of international students. She is now preparing a research project about non-Japanese women’s access to maternity care.
Panelist 1 Bio
OGAWA Reiko 小川 玲子 is a professor at the Graduate School of Social Sciences at Chiba University where she serves as a representative of an interdisciplinary team, Chiba Studies on Migration and Refugees. She has been actively involved in the evacuation of former Afghan students and families since August 2021 and is a member of Action for Afghans (AFA) which is a consortium of civil society organizations working on the evacuation.
Panelist 4 Bio
Lisa ROGERS リサ・ロジャーズ is a professor of the Contemporary Social Studies Sciences Faculty of Doshisha Women’s College. Here focus is Intercultural Relations and has written about issues such as the commercialization of Japanese universities, visibly different non-Japanese women residents of Japan and minority
Panelist 2 Bio
Dora TAMARI-TUTNJEVIĆ 玉利・トゥートゥニェヴィッチ・ドーラis a Japanese-Croatian who has lived in 8 countries (across 3 continents), a ship and an island over 10 years. She has worked and lead diverse populations including building a corporate training department based on the stories of asylum seekers in Japan. Currently, she is an intercultural navigator who engages audiences at universities or corporations.
