PUBLIC EVENTS 2026 ~ 2027
Sophia University institute of Comparative Culture Lecture Series 2026
Russian Television and Foreign Policy 2000-2026
Tina Burrett, Professor of Political Science, Sophia University
October 27, 2026, Tuesday, 17:00-18:30
Room 301, 3F, Building 10, Sophia University
In person only / No registration required
Sophia University institute of Comparative Culture Lecture Series 2026
Capitalism and Economic Extraction:
A Comparative Perspective on Global Talent Mobility
Anthony P. D’Costa, Honorary Professorial Fellow, University of Melbourne
October 20, 2026, Tuesday, 18:00-19:30
Room 301, 3F, Building 10, Sophia University
Sophia University institute of Comparative Culture Lecture Series 2026
Students, higher education and political change
A book written by Marie Lall and Ikuko Okamoto (UCL Press, 2026)
A book talk with Marie Lall, Chair of Education and South Asian Studies at the UCL Institute of Education and Professor at Keio University, Japan
October 16, 2026, Friday, 18:00-19:30
Room 301, 3F, Building 10, Sophia University
No prior registration required
Sophia Symposium 2026
Work, Education and Belonging
Organizers: Megha Wadhwa, David H. Slater (Sophia University) and Michiel Baas (Leiden University)
October 3-4, 2026, Saturday and Sunday, 10:00-17:00
Room 1701, 17 F Building 2, Sophia University
For abstracts and bios, click HERE
Register Here: https://forms.gle/NZu9XzqdYP5emfB2A
Sessions in English / No translation
Sophia University institute of Comparative Culture Lecture Series 2026
Biological Warfare and Postwar Japanese Memory
Ivo Plšek, Researcher at the Uppsala Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Uppsala University
July 23, 2026, 18:00-19:30
Room 301, 3F, Building 10, Sophia University
In person only
No prior registration required
Sophia University institute of Comparative Culture Lecture Series 2026
The Transnational Lives of Korean Chinese Workers
June Hee Kwon, Associate Professor in the Asian Studies Program at California State
University, Sacramento
July 24, 2026, 17:30-19:00
Room 301, 3F, Building 10, Sophia University
In person only
No prior registration required
International conference co-organized by Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture, The University of Osaka, University of Geneva Geography Department, University of Turin Department of Humanities
Japan, tourist world tours and globetrotters:
from the Meiji period (1868-1912) to 1970
26-28 June 2026
Room 10-301, building 10, Sophia University
Detailed schedule: https://7b912aaa-2400-46c3-9847-666028c2ab29.filesusr.com/ugd/487f91_5371b313ac4242efbd565e5715a51e71.pdf
Please register: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/yRYrLMT2Rs
Full program with abstracts and bios is available now (PDF): DOWNLOAD
Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture Research Unit on “Sexual Harassment, Violence, and Consent: Japan in Cross-Cultural Perspective” presents
Not the End of the Story （終わらない物語）:
Conversation on Sexual Violence, Media, and Feminist Futures
(性暴力、メディア、フェミニズムの未来を考える)
Room L-921, 9F, Central Library, Sophia University
June 27 (Sat) 15:00-17:00
(Event in Japanese with English translation: 日本語に英語の通訳) 事前登録不要
June 28 (Sun) 13:00-16:30
(In Japanese only: 日本語のみ)
ICC recommends
A screening of "Pig Feast: colonialism in our time"
Followed by a discussion with Dr. Cypri Paju Dale
Date: 12 June 2026
Time: 5:00 PM – 7:30 PM JST
Venue: Sophia University (Yotsuya Campus), Building 10, Room 301 (In-person)
Register from here: Registration Form | KASA SUSTAINABILITY
Organized by KASA Sustainability, supported by GPGS and ICC
Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture presents a screening of a documentary film
a film by Megha Wadhwa
June 30, 2026, 18:00-19:30
Room L-821 (8F, Library)
In person only
No registration necessary
Discussant: David Slater (Professor emeritus, Sophia University)
Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture Lecture Series 2026
Repetition and stagnation in dreams of artificial intelligence
Sun-ha Hong, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and the School of Data Science and Society at UNC-Chapel Hill
July 2, 2026, 17:30-19:00
2-508, 5F, Building 2, Sophia University
In person only
No prior registration required
Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture Lecture Series 2026
Imagining Japan’s Economic Collapse:
Orientalism, Crisis, and Digital Media
Javier Pérez-Jara, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and East Asian Studies at the University of Seville and Faculty Fellow at Yale’s Center for Cultural Sociology
June 25, 2026, 18:00-19:30
Room 301, 3F, Building 10, Sophia University
In person only
No prior registration required
Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture Research Unit “Visual Studies and Displacement in/to Japan” presents an international conference on
Foreign Workers, Precarity, and the Changing Social Laborscapes of Contemporary Japan
June 19~21, 2026
Room L-821, 8F Sophia University Central Library
Open to all; no registration necessary
Language: English
In person only
Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture Lecture Series 2026
Photography, Memory, and Transatlantic Deindustrialization
Thomas Heise, Associate Professor of English at Pennsylvania State University (Abington)
June 18, 2026, 18:00-19:30
Room 301, 3F, Building 10, Sophia University
In person only
No prior registration required
Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture presents a workshop on
SOURCES AND CONSEQUENCES OF LOW BIRTH:
WORK LIFE BALANCE IN JAPAN
May 23, 2026, 9:00AM – 2:15 PM
Room 309, 3F, Building 2, Sophia University
Language: English (No translation)
In person only
No registration required
Bios and abstracts of the presenters from HERE
ICC Sophia Food Studies Unit: Online Lecture Series 2026
Cultural Imperialism and Asian Nationalisms
Krishnendu Ray, Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies at NYU and the Director of the Doctoral Program
April 20, 2026
May 19, 2026, 21:00-22:30 (JST) / 08:00-09:30 (EDT) / 13:00-14:30 (GMT)
ZOOM Meeting information
Link: https://sophia-ac-jp.zoom.us/j/98405194039
Meeting ID: 984 0519 4039
Meeting password: 572276
No registration necessary
Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture presents a colloquium on
Teaching Climate Change Through Place
Experiential Learning for Stronger Environmental Engagement
May 20, 2026, 18:00-19:30
Library, room 821, Sophia University
In person only
No registration necessary
Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture Lecture Series 2026
This talk is canelled
Matsumoto Toshio’s Antifascist Queer Becomings
Julia Alekseyeva, Assistant Professor of English and Cinema & Media Studies at the University of Pennsylvania
May 21, 2026, 17:30-19:00
Sophia University, Building 10, 301
In person only
No registration necessary
Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture Lecture Series 2026
Women and Immigrants in Corporate Japan
Hilary J. Holbrow, Assistant Professor of Japanese Politics and Society at Indiana University
May 19, 2026, 18:00-19:30
Sophia University, Building 10, 301
In person only
No registration necessary
Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture Lecture Series 2026
Upstream, Downstream, Offshore:
Constancy amidst the flux of supply chains
Julie Y. Chu, Sociocultural Anthropologist at the University of Chicago
May 28, 2026 (Thursday): 17:30-19:00
Sophia University, Building 10, 301
In person only
No registration necessary
Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture Lecture Series 2026
Rethinking Buddha’s Life and Legacy
Mario Poceski, Professor and Chair of the Religion Department at the University of Florida
May 7, 2026, 16:00–17:30 (JST)
Sophia University, Building 10, 301
In person only
No registration necessary
Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture Lecture Series 2026
Finding Nikkei in Interwar American Art
ShiPu Wang, Professor of Art History/Visual Studies, UC Merced
May 12, 2026, 17:30–19:00
Sophia University, Building 10, 301
In person only
No registration necessary
Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture Lecture Series 2026
Refugee support in the heart of Europe’s capital:
Insights from a collective initiative carried out in solidarity with asylum seekers on a university campus in Brussels
Yannick Vanderborght, Professor of Political science at UCLouvain (Belgium)
May 11, 2026, 18:30–20:00
Sophia University, Building 10, 301
In person only
No registration necessary
ICC Sophia Food Studies Unit: Online Lecture Series 2026
Migration, Social Media, and Globalization:
Matcha Latte and Bubble Tea in Toronto, Canada
Jeffrey Pilcher, Professor of Food Studies in the Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences and Director of the Culinaria Research Centre at the University of Toronto Scarborough
April 20, 2026
20:30-22:00 (JST) / 07:30-09:00 (US EST) / 12:30-14:00 (GMT)
ZOOM Meeting information
https://sophia-ac-jp.zoom.us/j/95084567453
Meeting ID: 950 8456 7453
Password: sophiafood
No registration necessary
Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture Lecture Series 2026
– and some thoughts on the challenges of reporting from war and conflict zones
Gabriele Riedle
April, 20, 2026, 18:00–19:30
Sophia University, Building 10, 301
In person only
No registration necessary
“Contemporary Tokyo Seminar Series” #4
A Section through Tokyo’s Labourscape
Work, Space, and Community in Sumida’s Machikoba Neighbourhoods
Christian Dimmer, Associate Professor of Urban Studies and Transition Design at Waseda University
David H. Slater, Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Sophia University
April, 8, 2026, 18:00–19:30
Sophia University, Building 10, 301
In English without translation
In person only
Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture Lecture Series 2026
Deities of Heaven, Deities of Earth, and Foreignness in Japanese Origin Myths
Bernhard Scheid, Austrian Academy of Sciences (Senior Scientist Emeritus)
April, 16, 2026, 18:00–19:30
Sophia University, Building 10, 301
In person only