I am a cultural, medical, and visual anthropologist who researches disability in contemporary Japan and the United States at the University of California, Berkeley. My first project was on sign language, identity, and deaf social movements and resulted in a monograph and edited volume. After that, my second project was on schizophrenia and community-based recovery in Japan and this resulted in a book, its translation, and two films.

I'm currently running the UC Berkeley Disability Lab and the Othering and Belonging Institute's Disability Studies research cluster while finishing a third project which explores the intersections of disability, gender, and sexuality, which will result in a book titled: Trans/Japan. After that, I am working on a project on artificial intelligence and disability.


Research interests: Disability movements, technology and social policy, identity politics, gender, and sexuality.



Other hats
In addition to my academic position at Cal, I also wear a few other hats:
  • I'm the secretary of the Faculty Coalition for Disability Rights, which is an organization of faculty (including adjuncts, emeriti, lecturers, GSIs, and others in teaching roles) who are at UC Berkeley and are concerned about access at the university
I'm happy to take email correspondence on any of these issues, just please it make it clear when emailing me if you're discussing these other contexts.


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Contact Info



Robert and Colleen Haas Distinguished Chair
  in Disability Studies and
Professor of Anthropology
University of California Berkeley

knak@berkeley.edu

Department of Anthropology
232 AAPB Building (formerly known as Kroeber Hall)
Berkeley, CA 94720-3710
USA

disability.jp/nakamura
ORCID: 0000-0003-4335-2818