Sonja Pei-Fen DALE

Faculty of Social Sciences GLP Coordinator, “GLP seminar,” “Planning I,” “Planning II,” “Queer Theories”
sonja.dale @ r.hit-u.ac.jp (remove spaces)

Welcome to the Global Leaders Program! I am excited to be in-charge of this program, and to be working with all of you in the semesters ahead. As someone of mixed heritage who has lived in a number of different countries, I have reaped the benefits of an international upbringing and education. I grew up mostly in Singapore, moved to Norway as a high school student, went to university in England, spent some time working in the Czech Republic, got my Masters in Denmark, spent a semester abroad in France, then ended up in Japan in 2009 to embark on my PhD at Sophia University. My research focuses mostly on gender and minority issues, and in the past I have been particularly interested in the construction of gender identity. I currently focus on issues of social structure and discrimination, looking at the experiences of transgender individuals in the workplace in Japan.

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AKAMINE Jun

Institute for the Study of Global Issues, Graduate School of Social Sciences “Overseas Fieldwork,” “Topics in Global Studies I A”
akamine.jun @ r.hit-u.ac.jp (remove spaces)

Together with Sonja, I am in charge of the Global Leaders Program at the Faculty of Social Sciences. I studied at the University of the Philippines for my Ph.D. in the late 1990s for five years. The experiences from that period made me who I am today. Tracing the supply chains of common foods such as banana and tuna, I investigate the historical relationship between Southeast Asian nations and Japan. Currently, I am interested in edible oils made from palms such as coconut oil and palm oil in Southeast Asia: How their production has grown for the last three decades, how such edible oils have contributed to expanding food industry, and how the over consumption of edible oils has created health problems, etc.