Aya Ezawa is Diversity Officer of Leiden University. As team-leader of the Diversity and Inclusion Expertise Office, her role is to translate the University’s ambitions of becoming a diverse and inclusive community into concrete policy measures and actions. The Expertise Office offers advice and support to staff and students on questions related to diversity and inclusion. Aya Ezawa is a sociologist and University Lecturer in Modern Japan studies. Her research examines social inequality and differentiation based on oral history interviews. In her research, she has examined the gendered character of social class and social mobility in the context of the life stories of single mothers in Japan. Her research on Japanese-Indo-Europeans explores examines how race and gender shape the discourse and personal lives of children born during the Japanese Occupation of the Dutch East Indies.

More information about Aya Ezawa

Research

My research explores the lives of individuals based on oral history interviews, to be able to connect individual life trajectories with their social and historical context. More concretely, I have explored the lives of single mothers in Japan, not only to shed light on the socio-economic consequences of pursuing a lifestyle outside of the married mother, and male breadwinner norm, but also to foster a better understanding of the gendered character of social class and social mobility. My most recent research focuses on the relationship between memories of WWII and the experiences and identities of children born across enemy lines during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies. 

CV

Education
Ph.D. in Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
M.Sc. in Sociology, London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London, UK
B.A. cum laude in Japanese Studies-Modern Society, Sophia University, Japan

Publications