Dr Akira Shah

Akira is Post-Doctoral Research Associate at SOAS’ Japan Research Centre. He is also Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Postdoctoral Fellow at the Graduate School of Education, Kyoto University. 

Akira received his Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) in Anthropology at the University of Oxford in 2023, before staying on as a Postdoctoral Affiliate for two years at its School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, where he remains a Research Affiliate. He was also JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow at Keio University between 2025-2026. 

Akira's present research expands on a doctoral thesis titled International Baccalaureate Teacher Training in Japanese Higher Education: An Ethnography of Internationalist & Globalist Agendas. Contextualized in the rise of IB education in Japan, he explored how different ideologies, pedagogies, and languages forwarded by various actors – ranging from teachers and policymakers, to governmental and corporate elites – vie to define the meanings of ‘international’ and ‘global’ in everyday life. 

This project's doctoral phase involved a digital ethnography of international teacher education programs inside Japanese higher education, carried out between 2020 and 2021; the peak of COVID-19. His current phase of ethnographic fieldwork partly mimics that accomplished previously, only now in-person, and under a more settled climate six years later. 

Examples of Akira’s ongoing work has been published in journals ranging from Anthropology & Education Quarterly, to Japan Forum and Ethnography. His recent papers encompass theories of whiteness, minoritization, digitality, and contemplative practice. 

Born in the UK, Akira's upbringing contains a transnational mix of cultural influences, ranging from those Japanese and Canadian, to Guyanese and Indian. 

• Globalization / Internationalization
• Nationalism / Localism
• Imperialism / Colonialism
• Audit Culture
• Whiteness
• Japaneseness
• Minoritization
• Language
• Translation
• Pedagogy
• Education
• Digitality
• Contemplative Practice