Sachiko Ishihara

My PhD project looks at people who moved to the countryside, specifically focusing on two islands, Yakushima (Kagoshima prefecture) and Goto (Nagasaki prefecture), in the southwestern parts of Japan. Through an ethnographic-inspired approach, my main interest lies in analyzing their narratives of their everyday lives as an expression of various understandings of "sustainability"

Also interested in poetic inquiry and "writing differently."

Personal blog

(she/her - Why do pronouns matter?)

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I am an active Affiliated Member at the interdisciplinary sustainability research forum run by PhD students, CEMUS (Centre for Environment and Development Studies) PhD Research Forum. Apart from running student-led PhD courses and skills workshops, we organize bi-monthly seminars to meet and discuss with PhD students from different departments and get feedback to our research from wide perspectives.

During 2015-2018, I worked at a unique student-led education centre, CEMUS (Centre for Environment and Development Studies). Among other responsibilities, I was a Course Coordinator for the undergraduate course 'Global Challenges and Sustainable Futures.' Using many participatory and experiential learning methods, I contributed in developing the use of futures thinking methods such as backcasting as a pedagogical exercise to discuss sustainable future visions and pathways.

I hope to continue working with designing and facilitating participatory processes in teaching/learning, research and beyond.

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Other previous work and responsibilities:

• Outreach and Collaboration Team at CEMUS (2016-2017)
• Organizing and facilitating of the inaugural workshop for the Global Citizenship Programme in the Matariki Network of Universities. Documentary video (2016, 5 min) available at: https://youtu.be/KjOSduRyDTA
• MSc Sustainable Development (Uppsala University & SLU, 2015)
• Master's thesis (2015): What is the future we want? Future Session Workshops in Japanese Deliberative Democracy. Full text available here.