Educational background
McGill University, Anthropology, Ph.D.
Key words for education
medical anthropology, science studies
Sample courses
Culture and Illness, Anthropology of Food, Environmental Anthropology, Medical Anthropology, History of Science, Anthropology of the Self, Anthropology of Memory, Science and Law
Features of My Courses
When I took my first anthropology class twenty years ago, I found it fascinating but also incomprehensible. It was so different from physics which I was studying until then. Anthropology was not logical! Then I realized that anthropological “understanding” involved more than an exercise of intellect; it also required things like empathy. Delving into stories about different lives and cultures allows us to go beyond our everyday life and produce small paradigm shifts within ourselves-so we can experience our world slightly differently from before. Learning concepts allow us to give these experiences a name, so we can share them with others. In my courses, I try to incorporate these two aspects of anthropological education.
Research Keywords
medical anthropology, war and environment, Agent Orange, science studies, allergy, Chinese diaspora.
Sample Publications
- Uesugi, Tak (2019) A Dialogic Approach to Toxic Disasters: Agent Orange in A Luoi Valley Valley [Aproximacion dialogica a los desastres toxicos. El Agente Naranja en el valle A Luoi (Vietnam)]. AIBR (Iberoamerican Anthropology) 14(1): 29-40
- Uesugi, Tak (2016) Toxic Epidemics: Agent Orange Sickness in Vietnam and the United States. Medical Anthropology: Cross-Cultural Studies in Health and Illness 35 (6): 464-476.
- Uesugi, Tak (2014) Risky Commons of Tragedy: Ubiquity and Exceptionality of Dioxin Risk in Central Vietnam, Japanese Review of Cultural Anthropology 14: 55-73.
- Uesugi, Tak (2013) Is Agent Orange a Poison? Vietnamese Agent Orange Litigation and the New Paradigm of Poison, The Japanese Journal of American Studies 24: 203-222.
- Uesugi, Tak (2009) Gleaning Silences: Suffering, Rememory and Subjectivity, vis-a-vis: Explorations in Anthropology 9(1): 10-17.
What I like about Discovery
GDP is like an island within Okayama University. We do things differently here. Norms and customs taken for granted outside do not necessarily apply here. Imagine yourself studying at GDP, exploring new possibilities in this highly multicultural environment with intelligent and motivated students who are willing to challenge their limits.
