Biography

Yasuko Takezawa is a university professor at Kansai Gaidai University (Kansai University of Foreign Studies), within the Center for Intercultural Research. After earning a Bachelor's degree in Anthropology with a focus on comparative cultures in 1981 from the University of Tsukuba, she pursued a Master's degree in Anthropology at the University of Washington (United States) in 1984. She then completed a second Master's degree in International Affairs, specializing in American studies and anthropology, at the University of Tsukuba in 1987. In 1989, she obtained a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Washington. Yasuko Takezawa is a specialist in issues of race and ethnicity.

Collaboration with the IAO

Yasuko Takezawa's visit is part of the research conducted by the three thematic areas of the IAO (Law, History, Arts), focusing on imposed or imagined identities in East and Southeast Asia.
A pioneer in Japan in the critical examination of the concepts of “race” and “ethnicity,” Yasuko Takezawa has studied these issues from an interdisciplinary and transnational perspective. From 2005 to 2023, she led a major research program—funded three times by the Japanese government—that brought together scholars from various countries and disciplines to explore the construction and dissemination of ethnic categories in contemporary sciences and societies.
Her work, at the crossroads of anthropology, history, and the social sciences, has contributed to the deconstruction of racial categories and promoted the international circulation of knowledge, notably through translation. She has also mentored many early-career researchers throughout their academic journeys.

During her stay, she will give two lectures in English, addressing topics such as:

• the language and ideologies of “race” in East Asia,
• a comparison between Japan’s burakumin and Korea’s paekchŏng,
• the scientific construction of segregation.

One of these lectures may be published in the journal Tracés, translated into French by Arnaud Nanta (CNRS).

A research workshop will also bring together scholars from ENS de Lyon, EHESS, and other institutions, with three main objectives:

• to compare Japanese and French approaches to race and racism studies,
• to clarify terminological and conceptual differences across disciplines and cultural contexts,
• to review recent literature on these topics.

Major publications

Ouvrages, directions d’ouvrage ou de numéro spécial de revue

(in English)

• Yasuko Takezawa, Faye V. Harrison, Akio Tanabe (dir.), Visibilities and Invisibilities of Race and Racism, New York: Routledge, 2023
• Yasuko Takezawa, Akio Tanabe (dir.), Race and Migration in the Transpacific, London: Routledge, 2023
• Yasuko Takezawa, Jean-Frederic Schaub (dir.), Special Issue: Race and Civilization in Japan, Politika, labex TEPSIS, EHESS, 2021
• Yasuko Takezawa, Laura Kina (dir.), Special Issue: Trans-Pacific Minor Visions in Japanese Diasporic Art. Asian, 2020
• Yasuko Takezawa, Gary Okihiro (dir.), Transpacific Japanese American Studies: Dialogues on Race and Racializations, Honolulu, University of Hawai’i Press, 2016
• Yasuko Takezawa (dir.), Racial Representations in Asia, Yasuko, Kyoto/ Melbourne: Kyoto University Press/Transpacific Press, 2011
• Yasuko Takezawa, Breaking the Silence: Ethnicity and Redress among Japanese Americans. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995

(in French)

• Yasuko Takezawa, Jean-Frederic Schaub, Race et Civilisation au Japon. Paris: Politika, Labex TEPSIS, EHESS, 2021

(in Japanese)

• Yasuko Takezawa , Racism in the United State: Formations and Transformations of Categories and Identities, Nagoya: Nagoya U Press, 2023
• Yasuko Takezawa, Jean-Frederic Schaub (dir.), Racism and Anti-Racism: Crossing Boundaries and Transformations, Kyoto: Kyoto University Press, 2022
• Yasuko Takezawa, Daisuke Higuchi, Hyogo International Association (dir.), Multiculturalism in Hyogo: A History of 150 Years, Kobe: Kobe Shimbun Printing, 2021
• Akio Tanabe, Yasuko Takezawa, Ryuichi Narita (dir.), Migration and Race in the Trans-Pacific: From Governance to Control, From Encounters to Alliances, Kyoto: Kyoto University Press (2020)