The Chair of the Centre says:
It is an honour to welcome everybody back to SOAS at the beginning of a new academic year as the new Chair of the Japan Research Centre. I would like to take this opportunity to offer my heart-felt thanks to Dr Helen Macnaughtan, who was at the helm of the JRC for not one, but two consecutive terms. It is due to her efforts that the JRC is in a stable and financially viable position in a quickly changing institutional landscape. Her exceptional leadership through the pandemic interruption has been inspirational. By moving the seminar series online, she has created an opportunity to invite speakers from all over the world (time zones allowing) and has greatly expanded the audience. I will try my utmost to continue in this vein and can announce that the Wednesday seminar series will remain online, at least for term one. I am also delighted to announce that Prof Joylon Baraka Thomas from the University of Pennsylvania has agreed to be our speaker at this autumn’s Meiji Jingu lecture. After proceedings had to be cancelled last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this year’s lecture will be the first Meiji Jingu lecture to be held online.
I am looking forward to working with the Steering Committee and all of you to continue the vital work of the Japan Research Centre, now in its 43 year!