Dr Louella Matsunaga
BSc MA PhD(London)
Overview
Department of Anthropology and Sociology
(Senior Teaching Fellow)
Japan, anthropology of organisations, Japanese religions outside Japan, gender, medical anthropology and the social negotiation of death.
Contact Details
- Name:
- Dr Louella Matsunaga
- Email address:
- lm38@soas.ac.uk
- Telephone:
- 020 7898 4070
- Fax:
- 020 7898 4699
- Address:
- School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG - Building:
- Russell Square: College Buildings
- Office No:
- 535
Interests / Disciplines
Japan, anthropology of organisations, Japanese religions outside Japan, gender, medical anthropology and the social negotiation of death.
Teaching
- Ethnography of a selected region: Japan.
- Japanese culture and society.
- Comparative studies of society and culture.
Programmes Convened
Courses Taught
Research
My current research concerns the ways in which medical related deaths are reported and investigated in Japan and England. This involves comparing notions of “natural” and “unnatural” death, and the ways in which these notions may become problematic in the context of rapidly advancing medical technologies; examining beliefs relating to the body and appropriate treatment of the body after death; as well as the different legal and medical systems surrounding death in the two countries. This builds on two aspects of my previous research: an interest in the anthropology of organisations, developed during my doctoral research in a Japanese retail company in Tokyo; and my post-doctoral research which concerned Japanese new religions abroad. As part of this, I looked at ideas relating to health, illness, and healing in one of Japan’s better known new religions, Sûkyô Mahikari, in the UK.
Expertise
For help in contacting SOAS academics and advice on services to business and the community, please contact SOAS Enterprise on 020 7898 4837 or email interface@soas.ac.uk.
For all press and media enquiries please call 020 7898 4956 or email jf51@soas.ac.uk
Available for
- TV
- Radio
- Press
- Briefings
- Special Study Programmes
- Short Term Consultancy
- Long Term Consultancy
Regional Expertise
- East Asia
Country Expertise
- Japan
Languages
Publications
Authored Books
Matsunaga , Louella (2000) The Changing Face of Japanese Retail: working in a chain store. The Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese studies series. London: Routledge.
Chapters in Books
Matsunaga , Louella (2007) 'Kigyou no guroubaruka to nashonaru aidentitii [The globalization of enterprises and national identity].' In: Nakamaki, H. and Hioki, K., (eds.), Kaisha bunka no guroubaru-ka: Keieijinruigakuteki kousatsu (The globalization of company culture: an investigation from the perspective of the anthropology of management. Osaka: Toho Shuppan.
Matsunaga , Louella (2004) 'The Branding of Space.' In: Nakamaki , Hirochika, (ed.), A comparison of management culture in Japan and the UK: focusing on religion and museum. Osaka, Japan: National Museum of Ethnology.
Matsunaga , Louella (2002) 'Familiarity and Difference: Relocating Sukyo Mahikari in the UK.' In: Prohl, I. and Zinser, H., (eds.), Zen, Reiki, Karate: Japanishche Religiositat in Europa. Hamburg: Tuebingen.
Matsunaga , Louella (2000) 'Spiritual Companies, Corporate Religions: Japanese Companies and Japanese New Religious Movements at Home and Abroad.' In: Clarke, P.B., (ed.), Japanese New Religions in Global Perspective. Richmond: Curzon Press.
Matsunaga , Louella (2000) 'Spirit First, Mind Follows, Body Belongs: Notions of health, illness, and disease in Sukyo Mahikari UK.' In: Clarke, P.B., (ed.), Japanese New Religions in Global Perspective. Richmond: Curzon Press.
Matsunaga , Louella (2000) 'Recollections of life crisis: distancing the personal.' In: Parkin, D. and James, W. and Dresch, P., (eds.), Anthropologists in a Wider World: essays on field research. Oxford: Berghahn.
