August 19 Tohoku Disaster Fieldwork Symposium

A team of scholars led by Tom Gill of Meiji Gakuin University and Brigitte Steger of Cambridge University is conducting fieldwork in the Tohoku district of northeastern Japan affected by the March 11 earthquake, tidal wave and subsequent nuclear meltdown. Nine members of the group will be making interim presentations at a one-day symposium on Friday, August
19 in Yokohama. Anyone interested is welcome to attend, but due to space limitations we would appreciate it if you could let us know in advance if you plan to attend, by e-mail to tpgill@yahoo.com.

Date: Friday August 19, 2011
Place: Kanagawa Rōdō Plaza (also called “L Plaza”), No.1 Meeting room
http://www.zai-roudoufukushi-kanagawa.or.jp/~l-plaza/
Map:
http://www.zai-roudoufukushi-kanagawa.or.jp/~l-plaza/map.html
L Plaza is near the Chinatown exit of JR Ishikawacho station, which is the 3rd stop from Yokohama on the Negishi line.

Timetable
12 noon to 12.15 Introduction: Tom Gill and Brigitte Steger
12.15 to 1.00 David McNeill (Sophia University):
“Them versus Us: Journalism and Japan's triple disaster”
1.00 to 1.45 Johannes Wilhelm (University of
Vienna): “Some preliminary thoughts on the Special Zones for Disaster Recovery in Fisheries”
1.45 to 2.30 Michael Shackleton (Osaka Gakuin
University): “Crisis and Disaster: The Role of the
Fieldworker in Extreme Situations”
2.30 to 3.15 Ramona Bajema (Columbia University):
“Walls that crumbled, walls that survived: the response to outside aid in Minami-Sanriku and Rikuzen-Takata”
3.15 to 4.00 Nathan Peterson (University of Iowa):
“Adapting Religious Practice to Disaster Areas in Iwate Prefecture”
4.00 to 4.45 Rika Morioka (Johns Hopkins
University): “Mother Courage: Women as mediators between a passive populace and a paralyzed government”
4.45 to 5.30 Brigitte Steger (Cambridge University)
“‘Hisshi de ikiteita’ – ‘we maintained our lives
frantically’: Normalising daily life in tsunami evacuation shelters in Yamada, Iwate prefecture”
5.30 to 6.15 Yoko Ikeda (City University New York)
“The Contaminated Other: The social construction of risk after the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident”
6.15 to 7.00 Tom Gill (Meiji Gakuin University)
“This Spoiled Soil: the response to radiation in Nagadoro hamlet, Iitate village, Fukushima prefecture”
7.00 to 8.00 Concluding discussion