HIRAI Kyonosuke

Staff Members

HIRAI Kyonosuke

Professor
Assistant Director-General, Department of Modern Society and Civilization

Research Specialization	Social anthropology; Southeast Asia, Japan
Individual Research Projects	An Anthropological Study of the Genesis of ‘Negative Heritage’ in the Post-Conflict Era of Minamata City

Academic Qualifications:

B.A. Tohoku Univ. 1988
M.Sc. University of London (UCL) 1992
Ph.D. University of London (LSE) 1998

Research Topics:

Minamata disease victims’ movement in Minamata
Local museums in Thailand

Geographical Areas of Interest:

Thailand, Laos, Japan

Ethnic Groups:

Thai, Japanese

Discipline:

Economic anthropology, material culture studies

Publications:

2016	Preserving the community: the rise of museum movements in rural Thailand. In S. Tanabe (ed.) Communities of Potential: Social Assemblages in Thailand and Beyond, pp.165-184. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.
2015	Social movements and the production of knowledge: body, practice, and society in East Asia. In K. Hirai (ed.) Social Movements and the Production of Knowledge: Body, Practice, and Society in East Asia (Senri Ethnological Studies 91), pp.1-22. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology.
2015	Storytelling as political practice: habitus and social change in the Minamata disease movement. In Social Movements and the Production of Knowledge: Body, Practice, and Society in East Asia (Senri Ethnological Studies 91), pp.81-99. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology.
2015	(Co-authored with Naoko Sonoda) Introduction. In N. Sonoda, K. Hirai, and Jarunee I. (eds.) Asian Museums and Museology 2014: International Workshop on Asian Museums and Museology in Thailand (Senri Ethnological Reports 129), pp.1-7. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology.
2008	The Romantic Ethic and the Notion of Modern Society: Imagining Communities among Northern Thai Factory Women. In S. Tanabe (ed.) Imagining Communities in Thailand: Ethnographic Approaches, pp.135–160, Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.
2002	Exhibition of Power: Factory Women’s Use of the Housewarming Ceremony in a Northern Thai Village. In S. Tanabe and C. Keyes (eds.) Cultural Crisis and Social Memory: Modernity and Identity in Thailand and Laos, pp.185–201, London: Routledge Curzon.
1999	Making up the Home: Modern Consumption of Northern Thai Factory Women. Tai Culture 6: 116–130.
1995	A Practice Approach to the Japanese Company: Loyalty, Harmony and Incentives. Asian Review 9: 1–37.

Presentations:

2014	“The development of community museums in Thailand since the late 1980s.” International Workshop“Community Movements in Mainland South East Asia” , Chiang Mai: Lanna Resort, 8 March, 2014.
2014	“Storytelling and change in the habitus: an emergent form of Minamata disease victims’ movement in Japan.” National Museum of Ethnology International Symposium“Social Movements and the Production of Knowledge: Politics, Identity and Social Change in East Asia” , 22 February, 2014.
2013	“The development of community museums in Thailand since the late 1980s.” International Workshop “Community Movements in South East Asia” , Chiang Mai: Faculty of Social Science, Chiang Mai University, 8 March 2013.
2008	“Materializing knowledge: palm-leaf manuscript-making in Northern Thailand.” Harvard University Anthropology Department Seminar, 19 March, 2008.
2003	“Spirits of Romance and Consumption Practices: Imagining Communities among Northern Thai Factory Women.” Imagining Communities: Cases in South East Asia, 17-18 November, 2003.
2001	“Modernity at Work: A Discourse on Gender and Sexuality in a Northern Thai Factory.” JSPS Bangkok Workshop, 13-14 January, 2001.
1996	“Exhibition of Power: Factory Women’s Use of the Housewarming Ceremony in a Northern Thai Village.” The 6th International Conference on Thai Studies, Chiangmai University, Thailand.