Aya Kimura

Background

Since I was a little kid, I was concerned with the environmental problems (In my effort to save water, I asked my little sister to wait to flush and I would go and flush once for two people - not a great solution for the global water problem, but I was serious). Maybe it was because I saw effects of hyper-industrialization growing up in Japan and Singapore. First studying environmental laws and policy, I came to realize that inequality and differences in power were at the root of the ecological problems- this is why I chose sociology. The youth today is facing and will face enormous challenges to address the social-environmental problems. I am committed as an educator to work with students to explore these difficult questions of livability and precarity.

Education

• PhD, Department of Sociology/Rural Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2006
• MA, Environmental Studies, Yale University, 2001
• BA, International Legal Studies, Sophia University, 1997

Courses

• SOC 305: Women and Health
• SOC 318: Women and Social Policy
• SOC 367: Sustainability, Technoscience, and Social Justice
• SOC 400: Food, Body, and Women: Analysis of Biopolitics
• SOC 478: Analysis in Field Research Methods
• SOC 607: Seminar in Methods of Content Analysis
• SOC 609: Seminar Qualitative Research
• SOC 670: Sociology of Sustainability

Research

I research intersections of technoscience, sustainability, and power relations in society. Topics that I have published on include agro-food issues, energy, citizen science, fermentation, agrobiodiversity, food security, and feminist political ecology.

Community Engagement

I have been active on the issues of agro-food issues in Hawaiʻi. I organized various community events deepen discussions on inequality and sustainability of food and agriculture. I sit on the board of an organic farm.